Lawyer hopes judge will deliver fair verdict for former Pertamina Director
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The lawyer for former Pertamina Director Hari Karyuliarto, Wa Ode Nur Zainab, hopes that the panel of judges at the Corruption Court of the Central Jakarta District Court can be fair and wise in delivering a verdict for her client.
According to her, during the trial, it has been proven that her client did not commit or harbour any malicious intent whatsoever.
“Everyone can witness it because everyone recorded it, videoed all this, visualised it in various reports. There is absolutely no proof of those allegations at all,” said Wa Ode in a statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The Panel of Judges has scheduled the verdict hearing for the case to be held on Monday (4/5). Wa Ode appreciates the panel of judges for their thorough and patient attention to all the defence notes or pleas that have been read out by her side and her client during the trial on Monday (20/4), leading to the final verdict hearing.
When reading the plea, she claims to have discussed in detail all the elements of the article as well as the legal facts present in the trial, where Hari only signed the 2014 Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA), which was subsequently cancelled and never used.
Therefore, if there was any realisation of the purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2019, she said, it is not the responsibility of her client because Hari had already retired in 2014.
“The realisation of the sale which is said to have caused losses in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic has absolutely no connection to him,” she stated.
Previously, Hari was demanded a prison sentence of six years and six months in the alleged corruption case of LNG procurement from Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC (CCL) at Pertamina and related institutions from 2011 to 2021.
In addition to Hari, there is also Yenni Andayani, Vice President of Strategic Planning Business Development at Pertamina’s Gas Directorate for the period 2012-2013, who was demanded a prison sentence of five years and six months in the same case.
In addition to corporal punishment, Hari and Yenni were also demanded to be imposed with fines of Rp200 million each, with the provision that if not paid, it would be substituted (subsider) with imprisonment for 80 days.
In that case, the two defendants are alleged to have caused losses to the state finances amounting to 113.84 million US dollars or equivalent to Rp1.77 trillion.
The state losses are alleged to have occurred due to unlawful acts that enriched the President Director of Pertamina for the period 2009-2014, Galaila Karen Kardinah alias Karen Agustiawan, by Rp1.09 billion and 104,016 US dollars, as well as enriching CCL by 113.84 million US dollars.
The unlawful acts committed by the two defendants, namely Hari is alleged to have failed to prepare guidelines for the LNG procurement process from international sources and still proceeded with the LNG procurement from Cheniere Energy Inc.
Meanwhile, Yenni proposed to Hari to sign the Circular Board of Directors Meeting Minutes regarding the decision on the signing of the LNG Train 1 and Train 2 sales agreement from CCL without supporting economic studies, risk studies and their mitigation in the CCL LNG procurement process, as well as without a CCL LNG buyer bound by an agreement.
Thus, the acts of the two defendants are regulated and threatened with criminal penalties under Article 2 paragraph (1) or Article 3 of Law No. 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law No. 20 of 2001 juncto Article 55 paragraph (1) first jo. Article 64 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.