Lawyer Reveals Shocking Fact: 99% of 2,596-Page Prosecution Brief Against Kerry Riza Was Copied from Indictment

Jakarta — The legal team for Muhammad Kerry Adrianto Riza, beneficial owner of PT Orbit Terminal Merak (OTM), has revealed what it describes as a shocking fact regarding the prosecution’s case against their client.

As stated during the reading of the prosecution’s sentencing demand on 13 February 2026, prosecutors sought an 18-year prison sentence for Kerry along with restitution payments for state losses and economic damages totalling Rp 13.4 trillion in connection with alleged corruption in the management of crude oil and refinery products at PT Pertamina (Persero).

Kerry’s defence counsel, Hamdan Zoelva, accused prosecutors of plagiarism in drafting their sentencing brief. He stated that 99 per cent of the 2,596-page prosecution document was merely a copy of the indictment — essentially a copy-and-paste exercise.

“We have uncovered a deeply concerning fact. The 2,596-page prosecution brief, after we checked it, turned out to be 99 per cent identical to the indictment — what amounts to plagiarism,” Hamdan said whilst reading the defence plea at the Jakarta Central Corruption Court on Friday, 20 February 2026.

Hamdan emphasised that the defence team objected to the prosecution’s failure to base its sentencing brief on the facts that had emerged during approximately four months of trial proceedings.

“Nearly the entire contents of the prosecution brief bear an extremely high degree of similarity to the indictment. We strongly object to the prosecutors’ failure to use trial facts as the basis for their sentencing demand,” he stressed.

Following the hearing, Hamdan accused prosecutors of engaging in manipulative conduct in drafting the brief. He highlighted the use of Irawan Prakoso as material evidence, despite the individual never having been examined by investigators or called as a witness in Kerry’s case by prosecutors.

“There is one matter we consider highly principled and crucial — the use of Irawan Prakoso as a key piece of material evidence that prosecutors treat as central to their view of the criminal offence related to OTM. We maintain that the prosecutors’ sentencing brief is manipulative,” Hamdan asserted.

Hamdan explained that Irawan Prakoso had in fact served as a witness in a separate case — that of Hanung Budya Yuktyanta, former Director of Marketing and Trading at Pertamina. However, in Kerry’s case, prosecutors deliberately chose not to call him to testify.