JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court decided on

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court decided on
Tuesday to continue the trial of tycoon Kaharudin Ongko and
banker Leonard Tanubrata of the now defunct Bank Umum Nasional on
corruption charges.

The two were accused of misappropriating more than Rp 5
trillion (US$556 million) of Bank Indonesia liquidity support
funds to finance their affiliated businesses.

Presiding Judge Amirudin Zakaria said that the alleged
misappropriation of funds took place between November 1997 and
April 1998, prior to the new Anticorruption Law No. 3/1999.
Therefore the court would try Ongko and Tanubrata under the
previous Anticorruption Law No. 3/1971.

"Article 1 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code stipulates that if
there is any replacement of the existing law, judges can
implement the law which is more favorable to the defendant," the
judge said.

"As Law No. 3/1971 does not stipulate a minimum sentence or
the death penalty, we decided to try the defendants under this
law," Amirudin said.

"With this decision, we negate the argument of the defendants'
lawyers who claimed that the court could not continue with the
trial as the new law was not retroactive," Amirudin said.

BUN, which was also owned by timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob"
Hasan, had received some Rp 12,067 trillion in liquidity support
funds from the central bank between Dec. 22, 1997 and June 15,
1998. The suspects, however, allegedly misappropriated more than
Rp 5 trillion of the fund.

Bob Hasan, who is now serving a jail sentence for another
corruption case, has also been named a suspect in the BUN case.
(tso)