Micro-entrepreneurs put in jail for littering

Micro-entrepreneurs put in jail for littering

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The Cibinong District Court sentenced on Thursday eight owners of
lead-battery recycling shops to five months in jail each for
polluting the environment, and ordered them to comply with
regulations if they wanted to resume their business.

"This court has handed down a sentence more lenient than that
demanded by the prosecutors, because the defendants have little
knowledge that such a business could be hazardous to the
environment as well as the people's health, and that they must
obtain approval from the Bogor environment office to run the
business," Presiding Judge Marsudin Nainggolan told the
courtroom.

Earlier on Wednesday, prosecutor Jamil Zaini had proposed a
six-month jail term for each of them.

Nurhasan Sahibudin, Awang Nasuhi, Dadang Eon, Parjo Asingan,
Ondi Toing, Jaya Emad, Herman and Ulung had started the battery-
recycling home businesses in 1992 in Cinangka village, Ciampea,
Bogor.

They recycled the lead foil lining the inside of the batteries
into blocks of lead, each weighing about 30 kilograms. The market
price for each kilogram of lead is about Rp 2,000.

The Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL)
nevertheless said the legal system was discriminative, in that
tycoons and mega-corporations with factories allegedly dumping
waste were left free to pollute the environment -- with far more
damaging consequences than a home-recycling shop.