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AKARTA: International relations expert Hikmahanto Juwana advised the government to file a criminal lawsuit, instead of civil suit, against New7Wonders (N7W) foundation if they felt Indonesia was being deceived.

He said the Culture and Tourism Ministry could file the lawsuit in Switzerland, where the foundation was based. He said the foundation’s credibility was questionable because it was not an international organization with country members.

Hikmahanto said the voting methods, which used the Internet, text messages and phone calls, should be verified too, because one person could vote more than once.

“Who knows, maybe it is used for blackmailing,” he said, as told by news portal tempointeraktif.com.

While Komodo National Park remains on the list of finalists, the ministry is suspended by the foundation as the official committee of the Komodo campaign.

Indonesian government lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said on Wednesday that he had prepared a civil lawsuit against the foundation for unilaterally suspending Culture and Tourism Ministry as the official committee of Komodo Island campaign.

Previously, the president of the foundation, Bernard Weber, threatened to drop Komodo from the list but then retracted the threat following Indonesia’s announcement on Monday that they would sue him if Komodo got kicked out.

Todung said the government would continue with its plan to sue despite Komodo remaining on the list. —JP