Summoning JK and Kwik Kian Gie progress: Lawyer

A lawyer representing former justice and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who stands accused of causing hundreds of billions of rupiah in state losses through an online business registration system established by the ministry, said the Attorney General's Office's (AGO) move to summon former ministers in the case was progress.

“To me, it’s progress in the sense that they [AGO] admits that a witness can ease the suspect's conviction depending on who asked for them, and not the prosecutors,” lawyer Maqdir Ismail said Thursday.

He added that summonses might even stop the case from going to court.

“[The testimonies] can be used to bring [the case] to court, or to halt the investigation. It means that this is actually a policy. A policy cannot be tried in court, unless Yusril gets money [out of the policy],” Maqdir said.

Yusril was the justice minister in 2001 when the online registration system, called sisminbakum, was established. The system was run by the ministry and private company PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika (SRD). SRD took 90 percent of the profits and the ministry took the rest.

Two years after the inception of sisminbakum, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) declared that the ministry's income from the system was illegal because it was not listed as non-tax income, thus causing the state losses.

Deputy attorney general Darmono said on the same day that the AGO would summon former vice president Jusuf Kalla and former coordinating economic, finance and industry minister Kwik Kian Gie next Wednesday.

“We hope that the [summons] letter has been sent today,” he said.

However, Darmono said the other two requested witnesses, namely President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, would not be summoned.