Pertamina wins 17-year-old battle against Kartika

Pertamina wins 17-year-old battle against Kartika

JAKARTA (JP): The Singapore Appeals Court has finally closed
the books on a 17-year legal wrangle over an $81 million estate
left by a former Indonesian official, pronouncing the oil giant
Pertamina as its rightful owner.

Albert Hasibuan, who coordinated Pertamina's legal defense,
announced yesterday that the Singapore court has upheld a 1992
verdict of the High Court which ruled in Pertamina's favor.

Pertamina has been fighting for the ownership of the deposits
at the Singapore branch of Japan's Sumitomo bank, which with
interest have soared to $81 million. The money was left by Achmad
Thahir, a senior Pertamina official who died in 1976.

Its chief opponent was his widow Kartika Thahir, who now
resides in Switzerland, and at one stage also children from his
first wife, but they later withdrew under government pressure.

Pertamina contested the ownership of the fund by stating that
it originated from payoffs from German contractors which Thahir
received in return for fixing lucrative steel construction
projects in Cilegon, West Java.

Kartika, who employed top lawyers from Britain, said receiving
commissions is normal business practice in Indonesia and
therefore could not be construed as corruption, which is the
basis of Pertamina's claim.

Albert told reporters at his office yesterday that he
personally went to Singapore on Thursday to pick up the verdict
from the Appeals Court.

Appeals Court Judge Jong Pung How in the verdict said the fund
was categorized as coming from bribe money and should be returned
to the Indonesian government, according to Albert.

$5m to Kartika

Pertamina however did not have all its way.

"The Appeals Court rejected our request for the title to
another $5 million also deposited in Sumitomo bank," he said.
"The court ruled that the money belongs to Kartika."

Pertamina did not have enough evidence to claim the $5
million, according to Chief Judge Jong Pung How.

The money, which had been frozen for nearly a decade in the
bank, was transferred to Pertamina's account immediately after
the December 1992 High Court ruling.

With the Appeals Court verdict, the Pertamina versus Kartika
Thahir case is now closed because that is the last legal channel
for any appeal, according to Albert.

Harry Tjan Silalahi, advisor to Pertamina's legal team, told
The Jakarta Post on a separate occasion that Kartika could not
appeal to the Privy Council in London because such recourse is
only possible with the consent of both parties to the dispute, in
this case Pertamina and Kartika.

The Privy Council is the supreme court of the Commonwealth
countries, of which Singapore is a member.

The Indonesian government views the 1992 High Court ruling as
a victory in its battle against corruption.

Kartika at one stage during the high court battle threatened
to reveal what she claimed to be the corruption practices in
Pertamina. But the court rejected the proposal at the Indonesian
government's request.

Pertamina's case was boosted by the written testimony in 1992
of L.B. Moerdani, then minister of defense, who had initially
been involved in the early negotiations with Kartika to secure
the return of the fund to her.

Moerdani said Kartika admitted the deposit fund came from
commissions for fixing the contracts at Krakatau Steel, a project
managed and funded by Pertamina. (02/hdj)