T

he Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) said that it would not immediately make any moves to seize Rp 4.4 trillion (US$319.1 million) in penalties from Yayasan Supersemar (Supersemar Foundation), even though the Supreme Court had ordered it to pay up for a misuse of scholarship funds.

The Supreme Court decision was followed up by the South Jakarta District Court, which ordered the Soeharto family to pay the penalty within eight days, and that it would soon liaise with the AGO to enforce the transaction.

South Jakarta District Court spokesman Made Sutisna also said that representatives from Yayasan Supersemar would be summoned to provide answers to whether or not the foundation would pay the penalty.

However, AGO spokesman Tony T. Spontana told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that prosecutors could not conduct the seizure until they had received official notification from the South Jakarta District Court.

'€œWe are still waiting to receive the Supreme Court'€™s official notification of the ruling from the South Jakarta District Court,'€ he said.

Tony said that after the AGO received the official notification, it would move to verify and update information on Yayasan Supersemar'€™s assets.

Furthermore, the AGO needed to evaluate whether or not it needed to pursue legal means to seize the
Rp 4.4 trillion from the foundation.

The case dates back to 2008 when the AGO filed a lawsuit at the South Jakarta District Court accusing the Soeharto family and the foundation of misusing scholarship funds by diverting them to their own companies.

The South Jakarta District Court found the foundation guilty of misusing the fund and ordered it to pay a penalty.

The Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2010 and demanded that it pay $315 million and Rp 139.2 billion, which together equal Rp 4.4 trillion under the present valuation.

The problem was made more complicated because the earlier decision by the lower court contained a typographical error, stating that the rupiah portion of the ordered payment should be only Rp 139.2 million, instead of Rp 139.2 billion.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing Yayasan Supersemar, Denny Kailimang, confirmed to the Post that the family had yet to receive a copy of the latest sentence from the Supreme Court.

'€œWe will wait for the official document before looking into it so that [the legal team] can discuss our next move,'€ he said.

In 1998, The AGO conducted an audit into Yayasan Supersemar, alongside several other foundations that were suspected of diverting funds.

At that time, the AGO had stated that the foundation was in the clear.

'€œWe want to know why the AGO took so long to file a lawsuit against the foundation,'€ Denny said.

He also suggested that a better solution would be for the AGO to seize the foundation and hand it over to the government instead of seeking compensation because the foundation was supporting the education of young Indonesians by giving out scholarships.

'€œWhether or not the Supersemar Foundation is in the wrong, it is an education foundation that hands out scholarships,'€ Denny said.