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View all search resultsEx-minister’s graft verdict might be ‘politically motivated’
The trial of Thomas Lembong, a former trade minister who had later supported opposition figure Anies Baswedan in the 2024 presidential election, has failed to establish any criminal intent or evidence of corruption, according to experts.
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Former trade minister and graft defendant Thomas Lembong looks at journalists ahead of the verdict hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Jakarta on July 18, 2025. A panel of judges sentenced Thomas to four-and-a-half years in prison and a Rp 750 million (US$45,871) fine after finding him guilty in a corruption case pertaining to sugar imports. (Antara/Bayu Pratama S.)
T
he verdict in the corruption case of former trade minister Thomas Lembong has stoked concerns among legal experts, who have questioned the ruling’s legal basis and warned it could set a dangerous precedent for silencing opposition figures.
Last Friday, the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Thomas to four years and six months in prison for allowing several private sugar refineries to import raw sugar from 2015 to 2016. He had intended to address national food security issues, however, prevailing regulations stipulated that such imports had to be carried out by state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
Thomas, at the time of the imports, served as trade minister under then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
The court said the former minister had “knowingly violated rules” by authorizing the imports through state-owned trading firm PT Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) in collaboration with the private sugar refineries.
Thomas was found guilty under Article 2 of the Corruption Law, which penalizes unlawful acts by officials to enrich themselves, other individuals or companies, and cause state losses or hurt the national economy.
The judges said Thomas had inflicted up to Rp 194 billion (US$11.89 million) in state losses, based on an estimation of how much PPI should have received, and therefore had also enriched the private companies. Yet, they did not find that Thomas had received any personal gain from the policy he enacted.
The verdict has raised eyebrows among legal analysts, some of whom claimed that the judges’ conclusions were “questionable”.
