Sjaril wins with a lawyer from justice minister's own firm

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office will appeal to the Supreme Court the Jakarta High Court's verdict, which acquitted Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin of all charges in connection with his involvement in the 1999 Bank Bali scandal.

In another twist to the story, it was revealed that one of his lawyers hails from a private law firm founded by the country's current Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Sjahril was earlier sentenced on March 13 by the Central Jakarta District Court to three years in jail in the corruption case involving the disbursement of Rp 904 billion (US$ 90.4 million) of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) funds to Bank Bali.

"Yes, we will file an appeal with the Supreme Court," Attorney General M.A. Rahman told reporters after a Friday meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace.

However, according to Topo Susanto of the University of Indonesia's School of Law, it is impossible for prosecutors to appeal the verdict which acquits a defendant of all charges.

Article 244 of the Criminal Code Procedure states "a defendant or a prosecutor could appeal to the Supreme Court all verdicts of criminal cases by either a district court or a high court except for the verdict which acquits the defendant."

Prosecutors, according to Topo, could only request for an extraordinary appeal to the Supreme Court for a verdict acquitting a defendant.

"The extraordinary appeal allows the Supreme Court to only change legal considerations of the verdict instead of the acquittal dictum," he said, referring to article 259 of the code.

The Criminal Procedure Code says so, but prosecutor Y.W. Mere indicated that he would take legal action over the verdict.

"You can say it's a tie but the game is not yet over," he told reporters at the Attorney General Office.

According to Mere, the high court's panel of judges -- presided over by M. Ridwan Nasution -- who heard Sjahril's case probably made "ambiguous legal interpretations".

"I have yet to obtain the copy of the verdict, so I have no idea about their legal considerations. It is questionable if they free the defendant of all charges while the lower court found him was guilty," he said, adding that he was disappointed with the verdict.

Mere earlier sought a four-year jail term for Sjahril on grounds that Sjahril was guilty of violating Article 1 of the 1971 Law on corruption, prohibiting the enrichment of oneself or others at the expense of the state.

Judges Asep Irwan Iriawan, Ali Akmal Haky and Subardi approved the recommendation and sentenced him to three years in jail.

The judges ruled that Sjahril had violated the prudential banking principle, which requires bankers to follow strict procedures in banking activities.

However, the judges allowed Sjahril to continue to work normally pending appeal.

Sjahril, according to the district court judges, was guilty of ordering IBRA to pay the controversial loan to Bank Bali under a government guarantee scheme even though it did not meet the conditions of the scheme.

The 59-year-old Sjahril had earlier vowed to appeal the verdict. During the High Court trial, he hired lawyer Hidayat Achyar from Ihza and Ihza Associated, founded by Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra, and lawyer Masyasyak Johan for his team of lawyers, which was led by noted lawyer M. Assegaf.

The acquittal of Sjahril came on the heels of other acquittal verdicts in the same scandal when defendants Djoko S. Tjandra, businessman and director of PT EGP, and Pande N. Lubis, former IBRA deputy chairman, were acquitted of all charges related to the scandal in August and November 2000 respectively.

Lawyer Luhut MP Pangaribuan said that the acquittals revealed once again that the courts do not consider the Bank Bali corruption scandal as a crime.

"Most of the (Bank Bali) corruption cases have ended up in acquittals by the courts due to various 'technical reasons'. We have a poor legal system here. Unless we restore it, we will never be able to eradicate corruption," he lamented.