Three engineers on trial for plagiarism
Three engineers on trial for plagiarism
JAKARTA (JP): Three engineers and an employee of a private company went on trial here yesterday for plagiarizing a hydraulic analysis for the reclamation of the capital's northern coastline.
Public prosecutor Mawardi told the South Jakarta District Court that Achmadi Sulaiman, Bambang Widyarno, Zainal Amin and Ade Abednego had plagiarized the "Hydraulic Analysis for the Reclamation Plan of the Northern Coastline of Jakarta" compiled by PT Sac Nusantara.
Judge Sutrisno presided over the trial session.
"The defendants have violated Article 44 of Property Rights Law Number 7 issued in 1987, as well as Article 55 of the Criminal Code," Mawardi said.
The maximum sentence for the violations is seven years imprisonment and a Rp 100 million fine.
Mawardi said that the four defendants committed the crime in March last year with three other suspects, identified as Aswin Osantana, Hadi Rianto and Sigit Siswantono. The three men are being tried in the Central Jakarta District Court on similar charges.
The prosecutor explained that Aswin Osantana, Director of PT Kharisma Wira Perkasa, needed a hydraulic analysis for a project proposal on the reclamation of the northern coastline of Jakarta to submit to the city administration.
City administration has started to reclaim the northern coastline of Jakarta to obtain a total of 2,700 hectares of land. The reclaimed land will be used for residential and business purposes.
Aswin asked Sigit Siswanto to steal the hydraulic analysis done by PT Sac Nusantara from the city office's file, the prosecutor charged. PT Sac Nusantara had previously submitted a reclamation project proposal, including a hydraulic analysis, to the city administration.
After obtaining the hydraulic analysis Aswin asked Ade Abednego to look for engineers to copy it.
"Aswin told Abednego to copy the hydraulic analysis of PT Sac Nusantara," the prosecutor said. He added that Aswin gave PT Sac Nusantara's hydraulic analysis, reference discs, books on hydraulics and a fraudulent report on a reclamation plan made by the Bandung-based Center of Water Research and Development.
Abednego then made a deal with Achmadi, Bambang and Zaenal to make copy of hydraulic analysis and changed the cover for the report.
PT Kharisma Wira Perkasa used the resulting hydraulic analysis report in its project proposal for reclamation of the northern coastline of Jakarta, which it submitted to the municipal administration and related agencies.
The fraud was disclosed when the director of PT Sac Nusantara, Rudy M.G. Schuld, reported to the City Prosecutors' Office that he suspected that his firm's report had been plagiarized.
PT Sac Nusantara registered "The Hydraulic Analysis for the Reclamation Plan of the Northern Coastline of Jakarta" with the Ministry of Justice's Directorate of Property Rights, Patents, and Trademarks, under Number 013246, on May 3, 1995. (29)