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Court rejects cattle breeders' petition on law at center of bribery allegations
The Constitutional Court decided on Tuesday not to alter most provisions in a judicial review of the 2014 Animal Health and Husbandry Law, which is at the heart of bribery allegations involving court justice Patrialis Akbar.
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Constitutional Court justices deliver a decision on Law No. 41/2014 on animal health and husbandry on Feb. 7 in Central Jakarta. The court rejected petitioners' request to alter four articles concerning a zone-based import system, which they claimed hurt domestic cattle breeders' businesses. (Antara/Reno Esnir)
The Constitutional Court decided on Tuesday not to alter most provisions in a judicial review of the 2014 Animal Health and Husbandry Law, which is at the heart of bribery allegations involving court justice Patrialis Akbar.
The petitioners of the law — breeders, dairy product sellers and veterinarians — requested the court review four articles that allow imports of beef from countries that are not declared free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) but have zones free of the disease. The system is called zone-based as opposed to country-based.
The petitioners wanted the court to prohibit the zone-based system for feedlot cattle and related products, which they said hurt the domestic cattle breeding business.
The court rejected the petition but emphasized that imports of meat and live cattle were allowed only if they were in line with principles of prudence and maximum security to avoid FMD. Such imports were also only carried out when Indonesia experienced shortages in the domestic beef supply.
In its consideration, the bench found that the 2014 law had set import conditions for both zone-based and country-based practices that imposed maximum security, despite the fact that such tough requirements could not fully eliminate the risk of FMD.
"But, in particular, imports using the zone-based [system], laid out in Article 36E, paragraph 1, should be carried out prudently," justice Manahan Sitompul said while reading out the ruling.
Patrialis, the second justice arrested for bribery in the past three years, is currently in detention after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested him for allegedly accepting money to rig Tuesday's ruling to alter the provisions in line with petitioners’ requests. Beef import businessman Basuki Hariman, who has been accused of bribing Patrialis, was in fact not among the petitioners.
Enacted in 2014 to support consistently high beef prices, the law provides greater access for imports of feedlot cattle and related products as it allows Indonesia to buy from FMD-free zones in foreign countries. Initially, imports could only be from countries declared FMD-free by the World Organization for Animal Health. (evi)
