Top News
Tuesday, March 17, 2015 Jakarta Globe
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Auditor Suspected of
Graft Seeks a ‘Sarpin’
Jakarta Globe
Former Supreme Audit Agency chief Hadi
Poernomo has filed a pretrial motion challenging his status as a graft suspect, in the
latest legal maneuver of its kind that seeks
to undermine the authority of the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, to
prosecute graft cases.
After skipping his first two summonses
this month from the KPK, claiming he was
sick, Hadi’s legal counsel on Monday filed
the pretrial motion in South Jakarta
District Court to have the antigraft body’s
charges against him dismissed.
The KPK named Hadi a corruption suspect in April last year for allegedly helping
Bank Central Asia (BCA) avoid a large tax
bill in 2004. The case allegedly took place
before Hadi’s term at the audit agency, or
BPK, when he served as the director general for taxation at the Finance Ministry
between 2001 and 2006.
Hadi’s lawyer, Yanuar P. Wasesa, said on
Monday that the KPK had no authority to
investigate his client’s tax issues.
“Based on regulations pursuant to the
1994 Tax Law the official [the director general for taxation] has the right as mandated
by the law to examine the taxpayer’s objection,” Yanuar said.
Hadi allegedly issued a letter absolving
BCA of a disputed 1999 tax obligation, illegally overriding the decision of a subordinate who had already rejected the appeal.
Yanuar said Hadi, in his capacity as director general for taxation, had full authority to accept BCA’s request.
The KPK contends that Hadi’s action
cost the government about Rp 375 billion
($29 million) in lost tax revenue. He is facing up to 20 years in jail and Rp 1 billion in
fines.
Hadi’s pretrial motion is the latest of
such motions against the KPK after the
South Jakarta District Court, in an unprecedented verdict, granted last month a pretrial motion filed by National Police chief
candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan
against the KPK for its naming of him as a
suspect over a bribery case.
Legal experts have pointed out that the
court’s unusual decision to declare Budi as
outside the KPK’s jurisdiction, reasoning
that he is not a public official — even though
he is the police’s human resources director
— is, most charitably, a controversial call,
and clearly inconsistent with the rules of
Criminal Code Procedures, or KUHAP.
According to the criminal procedure
code, pretrial motions are only authorized
to hear technical aspects of an investigation, such as the processes leading to arrest
and seizure of assets, and not weigh on the
substance of the criminal charge itself,
which can only be determined after the indictment of the suspect.
Activists have warned that the unprecedented verdict will inspire many corruption suspects looking to have charges
against them dropped even before they are
indicted, in what is now widely being
called the “Sarpin Effect” — named after
the lone judge who handed down the verdict in favor of Budi, Sarpin Rizaldi.
After Budi and before Hadi, Former Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali
and former Democratic Party lawmaker
Sutan Bathoegana have also filed a separate
pretrial motions in South Jakarta District
Court challenging status as suspects in
KPK graft investigations.
KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugaraha
said last Friday that South Jakarta District
Court had summonsed the anti-graft body
to appear at Suryadharma’s first pretrial
hearing on March 30.
The hearing had been rescheduled
twice, after Suryadharma withdrew his
pretrial motion before re-filing it last week.
The former religious affairs minister and
former chairman of Indonesia’s oldest Islamic-leaning party, the United Development Party (PPP), was charged in May last
year with embezzling funds meant for
sending pilgrims on the hajj.
The court’s spokesman, Made Sutrisna,
said the Suryadharma case would be handled by judge Tati Herdiyanti, while that of
Sutan by judge Asiadi Sembiring.
Sutan was also named suspect by the
KPK in May last year. He has been accused
of taking bribes when he chaired the House
of Representatives’ oversight commission
for energy in 2013.
Aside from those of the graft suspects,
another pretrial motion has been filed
against the KPK by Siti Tarwiyah, a witness
in a graft case allegedly involving Fuad
Amin Imron, a former Bangkalan, East
Java, district chief.
“I filed the pretrial motion because I
cannot accept investigators’ accusations
that I’ve been Fuad’s concubine,” Siti said
in Bangkalan last week, according to staterun news agency Antara. “My husband also
got very angry when he heard about this.
Our house is the largest in [our neighborhood], but that is a result of my husband’s
hard work as a contractor.”
She added the South Jakarta District
Court had received her pretrial motion last
week. Meanwhile, Judge Sarpin, who has
gained infamy because of his controversial
ruling, has threatened anyone who openly
criticizes him with a lawsuit.
“We are providing an open warning to
the whole public, especially government officials, former officials, including legal experts, so they don’t pass judgement, weigh
in or comment in a negative way on the way
our client performed his job,” Sarpin’s lawyer Hotma Sitompul said.
Hotma described Sarpin as a judge who
has served in numerous courts in Indonesia with “sound track record” and never
has been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
“Such negative comments accounts for
slander, defamation and libel towards our
client’s good name. We’ll air an ultimatum
to whoever has made such negative remarks [against Sarpin] and demand that
they openly apologize … in seven days,” the
lawyer said. “Otherwise we will report
them to the police.”
Sarpin so far has reported two lecturers
from the Andalas University in Padang,
West Sumatra, as well as former Supreme
Court justice and law professor Komariah
Emong Sapardjaja, for defamation for criticizing his verdict in a public discussion.
Former audit chief Hadi Poernomo is challenging his status as a graft suspect. Antara Photo/Puspa Perwitasari
Police to Probe for Corruption After Hangar’s Collapse at Makassar Airport
Jakarta Globe
14
workers were
injured and four
died when a hangar
at Makassar’s
Hasanuddin airport
collapsed last week
South Sulawesi Police said on Monday they
had questioned at least 16 witnesses over a
hangar collapse that killed five construction
workers last week.
“Our witness list includes the project
leader and several construction supervisors.
We will bring in more people, for instance,
from the steel company,” South Sulawesi
Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Endi Sutendi
said, as reported by Kompas.
The roof of a hangar, which was under
construction and set to have an apron and
taxiway, collapsed at Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi,
on March 9.
The incident injured 14 workers and
killed five. Some of the victims are still
being treated at Daya General Hospital for
severe injuries.
Flights were not disrupted as the hangar
was located at least five kilometers from the
airport terminal.
Endi said the police would dig deeper
for signs of corruption in the construction
of the Rp 46.2 billion ($3.5 million) hangar,
which was targeted for completion by the
end of this year.
“We’re still waiting for an expert to help
us investigate the case,” Endi said.
He added that police had confiscated
documents related to the project from the
construction company.
The Makassar airport authority funded
the hangar’s construction in 2014, and the
project was undertaken by Lince Romauli
Raya and Nur Jaya Nusantara.
The contract stipulated that the project
had a 120-day completion date, beginning
August 2014. The project would be owned
by the Transportation Ministry. However,
the contractors were given an additional
50 days to complete the structure, or until
Feb. 18, as the hangar was only 70 percent
completed on its 120-day deadline.
Work on the hangar was still ongoing
when it collapsed last Monday.
Lawmakers in Jakarta say they plan to
summon Transportation Minister Ignasius
Jonan to question him over the incident.