Tycoons continue to quibble over fairground
M. Taufiqurrahman and Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Businessman Edward Soeryadjaya filed a report with the city police on Monday, accusing business adversary Hartati Murdaya of forged several documents on the Jakarta Fairground in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, the object of a protracted legal dispute.
His move prompted Hartati to hold a media conference on her intention to report Edward to the police for defamation.
Edward's lawyer Gayus Lumbuun, however, insisted they have evidence.
"We have brought along some new evidence that PT Central Citra Murdaya, which is chaired by Hartati, had made fake documents," he told reporters at the police headquarters.
But Hartati said the documents were not solid evidence of forgery.
"I know that Edward is questioning several confusing dates in a debt transfer document, but several law experts have said that the document is legal and valid," she told The Jakarta Post later in a phone interview.
She added she will make the defamation complaint before Jan. 15, the day PT Jakarta International Trade Fair (JITF), who currently manage the fairgrounds, has to vacate the office buildings and 251,000-square-meter of land in Kemayoran as ordered by the Central Jakarta District Court.
Edward is JITF's president director, while its chief commissioner is Guruh Soekarnoputra, the younger brother of President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The conflict began when Hartati accused Edward of not giving her substantial shares in the company, after her Mauritius-based investment vehicle -- Jerome International Limited (JIL) -- bailed JITF out when it was mired in financial problems.
The promised share would give JIL 52.5 percent shares in JITF. Edward asked for debt restructuring, instead.
Irked by the move, Murdaya lodged a complaint with the Central Jakarta District Court and demanded an order to freeze assets belonging to Edward, whose father's business empire was thriving when former president Soeharto was in power.
However, on Dec. 12, a panel of judges at the East Jakarta District Court awarded Edward and Guruh the authority over the fairgrounds, despite existing City Bylaw No. 12/2003 which states that the new operator is Murdaya's PT Central Citra Murdaya.
Lumbuun said the bylaw was irrelevant and that he, representing Edward, had written to Governor Sutiyoso to suspend the bylaw as the legal dispute between the two tycoons was still in progress.