Prosecutor appeals against Djoko verdict
JAKARTA (JP): Prosecutor Antasari Azhar appealed on Friday to the Supreme Court over the South Jakarta District Court's recent verdict which exonerated chief defendant Djoko S. Tjandra of all charges in the Rp 546 billion (US$65 million) Bank Bali scandal.
Prosecutor Antasari signed the appeal registration document, witnessed by South Jakarta District Court spokesman Judge Soedarto and clerk Ramadhi Rizal earlier in the day.
He said he would soon draft an appeal to be submitted to the Supreme Court within a 14-day deadline.
"I need time to study the verdict, which is almost five centimeters thick, as the grounds to draft the appeal.
"In the appeal, I will position my argument against the judge's verdict on the grounds that the scandal is a corruption crime rather than a civil one," he said.
Antasari also regretted the judge's sluggishness in handing over the copy of the verdict to him and claimed that the prosecutor must receive the copy immediately after the judge read the verdict.
"On the eightieth day after the hearing, I sent a request for the copy of the verdict to the judge, which I just received today. Maybe the judge needed more time to understand his own decision," he told The Jakarta Post.
Judge Soedarto, who presided over the trial of Djoko, freed the latter of all charges on Aug. 28, 2000 over a legal technicality and over the prosecutor's failure to back his arguments with testimonies from witnesses.
Djoko, a director of the trading and investment firm PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), had taken over Bank Bali's interbank loans from the closed Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI).
Prosecutors earlier alleged that he had influenced certain officials, including inactive Central Bank (BI) Governor Sjahril Sabirin, to disburse Rp 904 billion for repayment of the funds.
The reimbursement of Rp 904 billion caused a significant loss to the state.
Several witnesses testified that PT EGP should never have taken over Bank Bali's interbank loans since they were guaranteed by the government under the bank restructuring program.
Many people believed that the Golkar party-linked PT EGP used the money to subsidize the renomination campaign of the then president B.J. Habibie.
The case was initially brought to the court last March, but then the South Jakarta District Court's chief Soenarto threw the case out on the grounds that it was a civil case.
The Attorney General's Office then appealed to the Jakarta High Court to reopen the case. The move was approved by the High Court, which then ordered the case to be reopened in May.
Antasari replaced his colleague Ridwan Moekiat in July, who then asked for early retirement after being implicated in a corruption case which revolved around the selling of evidence by a team of investigators he supervised.
Earlier, Antasari had demanded an 18-month jail term for Djoko, accusing the defendant of having violated subsection 1a in Article 1 of the 1971 Anti-Corruption Law, which carries a life sentence.
Antasari said he deplored the initial charges made by his predecessor, saying that the grounds were too weak for him to sentence Djoko. (bby)