Jakarta court sends first BLBI defendant to prison
Jakarta court sends first BLBI defendant to prison
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A district court sentenced on Monday a former banker to three
years in prison and ordered state prosecutors to imprison him
immediately, making him the first defendant tried for misusing
Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) funds to be put in
prison.
The court also ordered the defendant, former director of the
now-defunct PT Bank Asia Pacific (Aspac) Setiawan Harjono, to pay
the state Rp 408 billion the bank allegedly misused and Rp 30
million in fines.
The sentence was far heavier than the prison term sought by
chief prosecutor Endang Rahman, who earlier demanded a six-month
prison term for the defendant tried for misusing Rp 809 billion
in BLBI funds.
However, both Setiawan and his lawyers were not present when
the sentenced was read out on Monday.
Setiawan, 57, is currently undergoing medical treatment at a
private hospital in Central Jakarta for heart problems, while his
defense lawyers, led by LMM Samosir, walked out after judges
rejected their request for a delay in reading the verdict.
"I will inform the defendant's lawyers about the verdict,"
state prosecutor Endang said when asked by reporters whether or
not he would execute the court order soon.
The court charged that the defendant, as president director of
PT Bank Aspac, had failed to manage the bank's operations in
accordance with prudential banking principles and other
guidelines stipulated by the central bank.
"The defendant had no sense of crisis and disobeyed central
bank' guidelines to manage the funds, causing financial losses to
the state budget," the statement read, referring to BLBI funds
intended to help national banks contain massive bank runs amid
the economic crisis in 1997.
The central bank extended a total of Rp 144.5 trillion to
banks under the BLBI program between 1997 and 1999.
Audit reports by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) revealed that
some 95 percent of the Rp 144.5 trillion was misused by the
banks.
According to the verdict, Aspac misused a total of Rp 408
billion out of Rp 1.56 trillion of BLBI funds it received from
the central bank.
Setiawan had been charged under Article 1 of Anticorruption
Law No. 3/1971, which carries a maximum punishment of life
imprisonment.
Setiawan's brother, Hendrawan Harjono, was acquitted from
corruption charges in the same court in 2000. However, the
Jakarta High Court sentenced him in 2002 to five years in jail
and ordered him to pay Rp 583.4 billion in compensation. He
appealed the verdict.
Setiawan's case was heard by a panel of three judges
consisting of Judge Ridwantoro, Judge I Wayan Rene, and Presiding
Judge Lalu Mariyun.
Next week, Lalu was to be promoted as a judge with the
Surabaya High Court. However, the Supreme Court has suggested his
promotion be canceled because based on an agreement between the
Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, a
judge who has served in a district court on Java island must
serve as a high court judge outside Java.
Lalu is currently being questioned by the Jakarta High Court
over several complaints about his rulings, including a court case
involving shareholders of paint producer PT ICI Paints Indonesia.
He ruled in favor ICI Omicron B. V., which hired Yusril Ihza
Mahendra & Partners (now called Ihza & Ihza), during its legal
battle against its local partner PT Dwi Satrya Utama (DSU).