Prosecutor appeals against Djoko verdict

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)