TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Ex-Merpati boss acquitted of corruption
Exonerated: Former president director of PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Hotasi Nababan, the defendant in a graft case centering on the leasing of two Boeing aircraft, arrives at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday to hear his verdict
Change Size
E
span class="inline inline-none">Exonerated: Former president director of PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Hotasi Nababan, the defendant in a graft case centering on the leasing of two Boeing aircraft, arrives at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday to hear his verdict. The court acquitted him of all charges. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
The Jakarta Corruption Court acquitted on Tuesday former PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines president director Hotasi Nababan.
The court found Hotasi not guilty of breaching a government regulation in failing to report the lease of two Boeing aircraft to a meeting of the company’s board of directors.
Prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) had charged that the failure to report the leased planes violated Law No. 19/2003 on state-owned enterprises.
Prosecutors had sought a four-year jail term and a Rp 500 million (US$51,500) fine.
“It has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed corruption as alleged in the primary charges against him, and we rule to acquit him of all charges,” presiding judge Pangeran Napitupulu said in his verdict.
The panel of judges also found there was no evidence to support allegations that Hotasi tried to enrich himself via the lease of the aircraft.
The judges ordered the prosecutors to restore the name of the former Merpati executive.
Merpati had made a deal with the US-based Thirdstone Aircraft Leasing Group (TALG) in December 2006 to lease a Boeing 737-400 and a Boeing 737-500.
Merpati paid a $1 million security deposit. The money was placed in the account of Hume & Associates PC, as stipulated in the lease agreement’s summary of terms agreed between Merpati and TALG, but the planes did not arrive as scheduled in January and March 2007.
The security deposit had been paid based on an order from Hotasi, who signed the application form to process the money transfer.
The deposit was refundable, so if TALG failed to fulfill its commitment, Merpati would get its money back.
Following the failure of TALG to deliver the aircraft on schedule, Merpati demanded that the company return the security deposit but this was ignored by TALG.
In April 2007, Merpati filed a lawsuit against TALG’s owners, Alan Messner and Jon C Cooper, with the Washington DC Federal Court.
The court ruled in favor of Merpati, declaring that TALG and Hume & Associates PC were guilty of failing to fulfill their commitments.
The court ordered the two companies to repay Merpati’s $1 million plus interest.
Hotasi is not the first defendant to be acquitted by the Jakarta Corruption Court.
The court also handed down a not-guilty verdict to Mieke Henriet Bambang, the secretary of former Bank Indonesia (BI) governor Burhanuddin Abdullah, after he was charged with obstructing the investigation of a graft case centering on the illegal disbursement of Rp 100 billion of BI’s Indonesian Banking Development Foundation (YPPI) money in 2003.
