Company director gets 2 year in prison for polluting
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang | Jakarta | Tue, May 08 2012, 7:58 PM
The Tangerang District Court sentenced a company president director to two years in prison and a Rp 1 billion (US$108,254) fine on Tuesday for polluting the environment with factory waste in Cikupa, Tangerang regency.
A panel of judges presided over by I Made Suparta found guilty the defendant Agus Santoso, president director of PT. Power Still Mandiri that produced metal plates at the Milenium Industrial plant in Cikupa.
“The defendant is proven guilty of being negligent in managing the factory’s waste that it polluted the environment in the area,” Suparta said.
Prosecutor Sukamto objected to the verdict, which he considered to have no sense of justice, and had earlier asked the judges to sentence the defendant to five years imprisonment.
“We will file an appeal with the [Banten] High Court, because the punishment did not reflect the sense of the people’s justice. It’s unbelievable that a polluter only gets two years in prison,” he said.
The prosecutor charged the defendant with violating Articles 98, 99, 102 and 116 of the 2009 law on environmental management. The Articles carries a maximum punishment of up to ten years in prison.
The defendant also rejected the verdict, saying that he would file an appeal with the High Court.
“Of course, we will appeal because the punishment is too severe. My client should walk free from the court,” defendant’s lawyer, Gunawan Nanung, said. (iwa)
