YLBHI files petition against R&D policy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Wednesday to review a government policy aimed at allowing cooperative debtors to walk free from criminal chares.

YLBHI said in a media release that the ruling, which was contained within a presidential instruction (Inpres), had to be annulled because it clearly ran contrary to existing legislation.

"We ask the Supreme Court to declare the Inpres invalid and legally flawed, and therefore annulled," YLBHI said in the release.

The policy refers to Presidential Instruction No.8/2002 issued by President Megawati Soekarnoputri late last year, which grants former bank owners release and discharge (R&D) status. As such it would effectively clear them from any criminal indictments over past banking crimes.

Although YLBHI's move was the first legal step ever to manifest objection over the policy, opposition to it has been on the rise lately, from various elements in society, including academics, legal experts, legislators and others.

In fact, YLBHI's remarks came less than a week after a respected legal institution also expressed such an objection. The National Legal Commission (KHN) issued last weekend a statement urging the government to annul the controversial policy for the same reason.

YLBHI pointed out at least three regulations that the Inpres had violated, namely Law No. 8/1981 on the Criminal Code, Law No. 20/2001 on the eradication of corruption and Inpres No.8/2002 on equality before the law.

While the first says that the right to terminate an indictment lies only with the attorney general and not the president, the second states that a person cannot be freed from criminal charges simply because one has settled one's debts with the state.

The Presidential Decree does not refer to specific debtors, but according to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), five debtors had so far managed to settle their debts and were thus eligible to receive R&D status.

They are: Sudwikatmono, Ibrahim Risjad, The Nin King, Hendra Liem and Sudono Salim. They are among 35 debtors who received Rp 144.5 trillion-worth of state funds issued by the central bank during the financial crisis, under the liquidity support loans (BLBI) program.

Many of the former bank owners were later accused by the Supreme Audit Agency of misuse of most of the bailout funds.