Lawyer defends court's decision on Roche's case

JAKARTA (JP): The lawyer for drug distribution company PT Perusahaan Dagang Tempo, defended on Thursday the South Jakarta District Court's decision to sequester the assets of drug company PT Roche Indonesia at the request of his client.

Amir Syamsudin and partners said the court's sequestration ruling was legitimate and the legal process in the court was not in conflict with the arbitration clause in the distribution contract signed by both parties.

He admitted that under the distribution contract Tempo and Roche had agreed to settle disputes through arbitration, but, he said, Tempo could still file a suit against Roche as long as the case pertains to "purely juridical matters".

"We want to emphasize that dispute settlement through arbitration is only necessary as long as the dispute pertains to business technical matters, including product quality, delivery, pricing, or payment," the law firm said in the statement.

"As long as the case is concerning purely juridical matters, the right to examine the case lies with judges not arbiters," it added.

The firm made the statement in denial to Roche's lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis's allegation that the court's sequestration ruling was illegitimate as it had no right to examine the dispute given the fact both parties had agreed to settle all the disputes through arbitration.

"The district court is incompetent to try a dispute of parties bound in an arbitration agreement," Lubis said on Wednesday in a press conference, quoting Law No. 30/1999 on arbitration and alternative dispute settlement.

Lubis said the decision underlined legal uncertainty in the country and could further hurt the confidence of foreign investors in Indonesia which is anxiously wooing back investors to the country.

Tempo filed a suit against Roche at the South Jakarta District Court last October for annulling the contract that appointed the former as a distributor of Roche's generic and over-the-counter (OTC) drug products on the domestic market.

Generic and OTC products are drugs that can be consumed without a doctor's prescriptions.

Roche said under the contract, it could terminate the contract without giving reasons to Tempo.

The court ruled on Oct. 26 to sequester the assets of Roche, including its land and factory in Cimanggis, Bogor; its machines and all manufacturing equipment on the land and in the factory; as well as spare parts and half-finished and finished goods there.

According to Lubis, the court made the decision without allowing Roche to defend itself.(jsk)