Legal Counsel Exposes Irregularities in Suspect Designation in Petral Case

Jakarta – The legal counsel for Irawan Prakoso, Adil Supatra, has questioned the designation of his client as a suspect in the alleged corruption case concerning the governance of crude oil and refinery products at Pertamina Energy Trading Limited (Petral), Pertamina Energy Services (PES), and the Integrated Supply Chains (ISC) function of PT Pertamina (Persero) from 2008 to 2015 by the Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung). The designation of Irawan, along with six others, as suspects on 9 April 2026 is deemed to lack a strong basis due to the absence of state loss calculations. “In our view, there are at least two issues we can criticise here. The first is the lack of state loss calculation results. The second is the legitimacy of the institution conducting the state loss calculation,” Adil said during a press conference in South Jakarta on Friday, 10 April 2026. Adil emphasised that, based on the Constitutional Court (MK) ruling No. 28/PUU-XXIV/2026 dated 2 March 2026, state losses must be real and certain in accordance with legislation and MK jurisprudence. Therefore, the state loss audit should have been available before the suspect designation. “However, based on the MK ruling, we know that in corruption cases, the state losses must be real and certain. Yet in this case, even though suspects have been named, the calculation is still ongoing or in progress and has not been issued definitively,” he stated. Furthermore, Adil criticised the authority of the body calculating the state losses. According to him, the Financial Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK RI) is the only institution authorised as stipulated by law and affirmed in the MK ruling. “Based on the MK ruling as well, the body authorised to calculate state financial losses is BPK RI. But in this case, as we learned from the press conference, the Kejagung’s Special Criminal Division is calculating state losses together with BPKP colleagues,” he said. Based on this, Adil regrets the Kejagung’s step in designating his client as a suspect. He stressed that the figure of state losses is crucial in handling alleged corruption cases. “We deeply regret the action of the Kejagung’s Special Criminal Division in designating our client as a suspect in the corruption case, even though there are no state loss calculation results yet,” he said.