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.

Jakarta Post

Chevron accuses antigraft judges of ethics breach

PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI), the local subsidiary of US-based oil company Chevron, accused the panel of judges handling a graft case implicating four of their employees of ethical breaches

Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, July 20, 2013

Share This Article

Change Size

Chevron accuses antigraft judges of ethics breach

P

T Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI), the local subsidiary of US-based oil company Chevron, accused the panel of judges handling a graft case implicating four of their employees of ethical breaches.

A legal representative of PT CPI, Maqdir Ismail, said on Friday that he had filed a report on Antonius Widijantono, one of the presiding judges handling the case, to the Judicial Commission.

'€œWe have reported the case to Judicial Commission chairman Suparman Marzuki,'€ he said.

According to Maqdir, Antonius had done a fatal error by wrongfully detaining Bachtiar Abdul Fatah, a general manager at Chevron who had been named suspect.

He said that the judge signed a letter ordering Bachtiar'€™s detention on May 28, 2013, while he was already detained on May 22. '€œThe mistake needs to be fixed. But it shouldn'€™t have even happened in the first place. It is a human right violation. It is equal to taking over someone'€™s freedom,'€ said Maqdir.

Maqdir also planned to report other judges indicated to be violating ethic codes, including a judge who fell asleep during a trial session. '€œWe will report them within three days,'€ he said.

The Judicial Commission'€™s spokesperson, Asep Rahmat Fajar, said that the commission would process the report as soon as possible. '€œWe will respond to the report in accordance with the mechanism that we have. Maqdir and other representatives of Chevron had submitted some documents, including two photos of a judge who fell asleep during a trial session,'€ he said.

Responding to the report, Asep said that the commission urged all judges to act professionally. '€œWe urge all judges to conduct trials properly. They have to be able to show their authority through proper body language,'€ he said.

Currently the trial process of Chevron employees are still on going, with Widodo, another employee of PT CPI, sentenced to two years imprisonment for his role in the graft case centering on a bioremediation project at the company'€™s oil and gas field in Riau from 2006 to 2011.

Widodo, who is one of the heads of the company'€™s environmental division in Sumatra, was found guilty of abusing his authority by signing a document estimating the cost of the bioremediation project without proper consultation.

He is also guilty of being involved in the tender process of the projects, where PT Sumigita Jaya and PT Green Planet won the tender despite the fact that both companies did not meet the requirements needed to carry out the project.

The court also ordered him to pay Rp 500 million (US$49,500) in fines. '€œThe defendant has been found guilty of violating Law No. 20/2001 on corruption,'€ presiding judge Sudharmawati Ningsih said at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

The case started in 2003, when CPI initiated the bioremediation project to remove pollutants for environmental conservation in Riau.

In 2006, CPI appointed PT Sumigita Jaya and PT Green Planet to move contaminated soil to the bioremediation facilities, and it paid US$6.9 million to PT Sumigita to carry out the project. Later on, CPI asked the government to reimburse the payment it had made to PT Sumigita Jaya.

However, the prosecutors found out that none of Sumigita'€™s locations were contaminated by oil based on analysis by environment expert Edison Effendi, who they hired.

Therefore, they claimed that the government had reimbursed the cost for nothing.

Widodo'€™s sentence was lighter than the seven years'€™ imprisonment and Rp 500 million in fines sought by the prosecutors.

Besides Widodo, the court had sentenced two other employees of Chevron, Kukuh Kertasafari and Endah Rumbiyati, both of whom received a two-year prison term each for their roles in the same case, leaving Bachtiar as the only suspect yet to receive a sentence.

Responding to the verdict and sentence given, Widodo said that he would file an appeal.

{

Your Opinion Counts

Your thoughts matter - share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.