'Trust' financial magazine loses libel suit, fined Rp 1 billion
'Trust' financial magazine loses libel suit, fined Rp 1 billion
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Trust financial and law magazine was fined Rp 1 billion
(US$112,360) after it lost libel lawsuit filed by a businessman
at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday.
Presiding judge Cicut Sutiarso told the court the magazine had
failed to maintain journalistic standards of conduct in an
article entitled A gang of thieves hits state Bank Negara
Indonesia published in the Oct. 1-7, 2003 edition.
The plaintiff, John Hamenda, and his company, PT Petindo
Perkasa, accused the article of discrediting him and his company
and said it had violated the presumption of innocence principle.
Hamenda had demanded Rp 2 trillion in compensation for material
and immaterial losses.
The panel of judges considered the article was not based on
accurate facts and sources, as it only referred to a copy of a
document that allegedly implicated Hamenda and Petindo in bogus
credit schemes. The schemes involved Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI)
and caused Rp 1.7 trillion in state losses.
"Moreover, Trust magazine failed to use initials to describe
those who were mentioned in the article," the judges said.
The judges emphasized the article had led to the plaintiff
losing a project to construct the Madison Square shopping mall in
Jakarta.
The judges decided to exonerate BNI, another party accused in
the lawsuit, as they had found no proof the bank had violated
banking secrecy principles by informing the media about credit
schemes made by the company.
Trust lawyer Atmajaya Salim said his client would file an
appeal against the verdict.
Earlier, the magazine had filed a counter lawsuit at the same
court, asking for Rp 9 billion in compensation from Hamenda for
trying to obstruct journalism by threatening "to demolish Trust
office", Atmajaya said.
The banking scandal made headlines last October, when the
police named 16 suspects in the case and sent two BNI officials
to court over corruption charges.
During the investigation, the police arrested Hamenda but
later released him due to insufficient evidence.
The main suspect, Maria Pauliene Lumowa, is living in
Singapore, which does not have an extradition treaty with
Indonesia.
BNI Kebayoran Baru branch head Koesadiyono and Foreign
Customers Division head Edy Santoso stand accused of violating
Law No. 31/1999 and Law No. 3/1977 on corruption. The pair are
alleged to have disbursed export credits to companies without
proper assessments or checks.
The defendants could be sentenced to life in prison if
convicted.
Both were also charged under Law No. 10/1998 on banking and
Law No. 15/2002 on money laundering.
According to the prosecutors, the defendants approved export
credits to eight subsidiaries of the Gramarindo Group and the
Petindo Group with bogus letters of credit issued by banks in
Kenya, Switzerland and the Cook Islands as collateral.