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Evidence mismatch halts fight to protect Sabuai sacred forest
Investigators with the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s law enforcement division named a commissioner of logging firm CV Sumber Berkat Makmur (SBM), identified as IQ, a suspect in an illegal logging case in March 2020.
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An investigator with the Environment and Forestry Ministry's law enforcement division stands on a cut-down tree at a forest in Sabuai village, Eastern Seram regency, Maluku. (Courtesy of Environment and Forestry Ministry/-)
T
he fight to protect an indigenous forest in Sabuai village, Eastern Seram regency, Maluku is far from over as legal proceedings against a businessperson accused of illegal logging has been halted over reported inaccuracy in the investigation.
Investigators with the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s law enforcement division named a commissioner of logging firm CV Sumber Berkat Makmur (SBM), identified as IQ, a suspect in an illegal logging case in March 2020.
He was named a suspect for allegedly ordering the firm to commit encroachment and illegal logging in the forest where the Sabuai indigenous community resides. IQ was charged under the 2013 law on forest destruction, which carries a maximum punishment of 15 years' imprisonment and a Rp100 billion (US$7.1 million) fine.
CV SBM obtained a plantation permit from the Eastern Seram Forestry Agency in 2018 to establish a nutmeg harvesting industry in Sabuai village, while promising to recruit the villagers and distribute 5,000 nutmeg seeds in the village. But the villagers claimed to have never witnessed the company make good on its promise and instead shifted its focus to logging operations.
Incomplete investigation report
The ministry’s law enforcement division had submitted the documents and evidence on IQ to the Bula Prosecutor’s Office so it could prepare an indictment and register the case with the court. But the prosecutors returned the case to the investigators due to a discrepancy between the submitted evidence and the prosecutors’ investigation.
“Our team only found 50 pieces [of wood] at the crime scene. Meanwhile, the investigators wrote in their report that they seized 100 pieces as evidence in the case,” said Bula Prosecutor’s Office head M.Ilham.
