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dispute between the Sumber Waras Foundation and the Candra Naya Social Organization (PSCN) over a 32,372-square-meter plot of land has taken another turn with the Jakarta High Court capsizing a lower court'€™s decision and returning the land to PSCN.

In the Nov. 16 verdict, the high court judges also acquitted PSCN head I Wayan Suparmin of all embezzlement charges brought against the 57 year old by state prosecutors in relation to his handling of a land certificate.

Wayan'€™s lawyer Jimmy Stevanus Mboe said Monday that he had received notification from the Jakarta High Court that his appeal has been granted. He said that in accordance with the verdict, Wayan had been released from detention and the land certificate returned to him, as head of PSCN.

'€œThanks to the high court'€™s decision, the certificate has been returned to the owner and Pak Wayan is no longer behind the bars,'€ Jimmy told The Jakarta Post.

Previously, on Sept. 23, the West Jakarta District Court awarded the land certificates to the Sumber Waras Foundation and handed down a one-and-a-half year prison sentence to Wayan for embezzling the land certificate.

The land dispute began in November 1970 when then PSCN head Padmo Sumasto granted the land to Sumber Waras. He later canceled that decision, taking back the land, during a meeting in September 1999.

Years later, the dispute escalated after one of the country'€™s richest women, Kartini Muljadi, became head of Sumber Waras Foundation and later filed a police report against Wayan, alleging he had embezzled the certificate.

The foundation, which held a certificate for land adjacent to the disputed plot, sold the 3.7 hectare plot of land to the Jakarta administration for Rp 775.69 billion (US$55.9 million), with the city administration planning to build a cancer hospital on it. However, without also purchasing the disputed land, the city administration had no access to the main road, Jl. Kyai Tapa.

The West Jakarta District Court decision initially paved the way for the city administration to build the cancer hospital on the adjacent land.

Besides the decade-long dispute over the land ownership, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has declared it has found irregularities in the transaction that could have caused Rp 191 billion in losses to the city. That report has been submitted to the Corruption Eradication Commission for further investigation.

On Monday, Jimmy said despite the victory, the dispute over the land and the incrimination of Wayan were still not over as there was a possibility the prosecutor would take the case to the Supreme Court. '€œThe case has yet to get a legal binding decision and we will wait for the Supreme Court verdict,'€ he said.

Contacted separately, West Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office intelligence unit head Teguh Ananto said he was certain that the Prosecutor'€™s Office had filed a cessation to challenge the court verdict.