Indictment against Said 'unclear, confusing'

Indictment against Said 'unclear, confusing'

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Lawyers for former religious affairs minister Said Agil Al Munawar, who is being tried on corruption charges, have appealed to the Central Jakarta District Court to acquit their client because the indictment framed by prosecutors was "unclear and confusing."

"We appeal to the panel of judges to drop the charges and acquit our client because the charges laid down against him are groundless, unclear and confusing," said lawyer Muhmmad Assegaf during a court hearing here on Friday.

Said has been accused over the alleged misuse of haj funds between 2001 and 2004, when he was still the minister of religious affairs, causing the state to suffer some Rp 67 billion (US$6.7 million) and more than $848,000 in losses. The ministry's former director general of haj management affairs Taufiq Kamil and his treasurer are being charged for the same crime. If convicted they could be imprisoned for life.

The alleged misappropriation of the haj funds includes the transfer of millions of rupiah to a state auditor to influence the audit on the ministry's haj pilgrimage management agency, and the financing of haj trips to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for several lawmakers.

According to a presidential decree, the ministry is authorized to use some of the government profit from arranging haj pilgrimages for Islamic education, propagation and poverty alleviation programs and the development of haj facilities.

But Assegaf said that prosecutors of the interdepartmental anticorruption team, as well as the district court, had no authority to put Said on trial for his policies as minister of religious affairs and a member of the Cabinet of the previous administration of Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"The policies, which were made by our client in his capacity as religious affairs minister, should be accounted for by the President who appointed him if they are deemed wrong. The House of Representatives never questioned the (ex) minister over the policies. President Megawati had already presented her government's accountability report to the annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly," he said, adding that according to a presidential decree on the Cabinet, the minister is authorized to make polices related to the haj program.

"Government prosecutors seem less than professional in framing the indictment because only the President and the House have the authority to evaluate policies made by ministers. As long as the President and the House had no objection to the policies, the interdepartmental anticorruption commission and the Attorney General's Office are not in the position to evaluate our client's policy and prosecute him," Assegaf said.

A.W. Adnan, a member of the lawyers team, said there were inaccuracies in the indictment as some of the expenditure for the 2001 pilgrimage season was the responsibility of his client's predecessor Muhammad Tolchah Hasan.

"Why is our client's predecessor not being prosecuted," he said.

The misuse of the haj funds is but one of the corruption cases being handled by the interdepartmental anticorruption team, which is assigned to investigate graft cases in government offices and state enterprises.