D

uring a pretrial hearing on Monday, former state-owned enterprises minister Dahlan Iskan called on the South Jakarta District Court to halt the move of the Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office to investigate his involvement in an alleged graft case centering on the procurement of Rp 1.3 trillion (US$100 million) worth of electrical transformers,

Dahlan'€™s lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra made the plea during the hearing on Monday, which was presided over by sole judge Lendriaty Janis, saying that prosecutors had failed to gather strong evidence to support the decision to name the media tycoon a suspect in the case.

Yusril said that prosecutors had violated the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP) by naming Dahlan a suspect before questioning other witnesses in the case.

'€œThe Jakarta Prosecutors'€™ Office moved to question witnesses in the case after naming Dahlan a suspect,'€ Yusril said.

Yusril said he also suspected that prosecutors failed to involve the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in calculating the total state losses from the project. '€œIt is the BPK that has the authority to calculate the state losses,'€ Yusril said.

The court is expected to deliver a decision on the case next week.

Dahlan is the 16th individual to be named a suspect in the case, following the prosecutors'€™ decision to slap corruption charges on 15 PLN officials, 10 of whom are standing trial at the South Jakarta District Court.

The Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office has found that the state lost Rp 33 billion as the result of two malfunctioning central electricity transformers procured by PLN and investigators suspect that there were a total of 13 broken central electricity transformers that may have brought more losses to the state.