Dian Kuswandini and Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 11/15/2008 10:56 AM | Headlines
The Attorney General's Office has sufficient evidence to press charges against former justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra over a corruption scandal currently under investigation, legal experts said Friday.
Yusril is scheduled to undergo questioning by the AGO on Tuesday about alleged embezzlement connected to an online project at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.
The former minister and several of his former senior subordinates at the ministry are accused of stealing about Rp 400 billion (US$36 million) acquired from the project.
Legal experts said the website, which offers permits and notaries for legal entities to allow them to operate, was a state facility and therefore any income it generated must go into the state coffers.
The decision by Yusril, as the justice and human rights minister, to authorize a private firm to operate the website and collect fees without any income handed over to the state could be seen as a violation of various laws, including the corruption law, corporations law and state finance law, they said.
The corporations law, which states that legal entities can operate only after obtaining a permit from the minister, was the reason they accessed the website, according to prominent legal expert Frans H. Winarta.
"The website without its connection to the state, in this case the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, is nothing. Nobody would access it. So it is a state asset and any income generated from it belongs to the state," he said.
Frans said Yusril could be charged with abuse of power leading to the enrichment of individuals and corporations for his move to issue two decrees, one appointing PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika (SRD) to build the website, and the second activating it.
The decrees allowed SRD and the ministry's cooperatives unit to take all the revenue generated from the project -- 90 percent of the money for the company and the rest for the unit and senior ministry officials.
Under Article 3 of the 1999 corruption law, any official that abuses power, opportunities or facilities linked to his or her job to enrich himself or herself, others or a corporation, causing state losses, can be jailed for up to 20 years.
Yusril has denied any wrongdoing in the case, saying it was permissible to appoint SRD directly because the online project did not involve state money.
He claimed the case was politically motivated, designed to smear his reputation during his campaign to run for president next year.
Through the website (www.sisminbakum.com) launched in 2001, legal entities can register for permits and nominate notaries. The services on offer range in price from Rp 250,000 to Rp 1 million.
According to the AGO, the directorate general received 200 applications daily from notaries throughout the country, generating monthly revenue of between Rp 5 billion and Rp 9 billion.
Zainal Arifin Muchtar, executive director of the Center for Anti-Corruption Studies (Pukat) at Gadjah Mada University, shared Frans' opinion.
The website is a state facility and therefore any income generated from it must be submitted to the state, Zainal said.
"We challenge the AGO to build arguments based on this comprehensive legal reasoning without any political motives," he said.
The AGO is working with the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis Center (PPATK) to detect the flow of stolen funds from the online project.
"We hope the PPATK will shed light on the distribution of the money from 2001 to 2008 for us," assistant attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendi said Friday.
The Attorney General's Office has sufficient evidence to press charges against former justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra over a corruption scandal currently under investigation, legal experts said Friday.
Yusril is scheduled to undergo questioning by the AGO on Tuesday about alleged embezzlement connected to an online project at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.
The former minister and several of his former senior subordinates at the ministry are accused of stealing about Rp 400 billion (US$36 million) acquired from the project.
Legal experts said the website, which offers permits and notaries for legal entities to allow them to operate, was a state facility and therefore any income it generated must go into the state coffers.
The decision by Yusril, as the justice and human rights minister, to authorize a private firm to operate the website and collect fees without any income handed over to the state could be seen as a violation of various laws, including the corruption law, corporations law and state finance law, they said.
The corporations law, which states that legal entities can operate only after obtaining a permit from the minister, was the reason they accessed the website, according to prominent legal expert Frans H. Winarta.
"The website without its connection to the state, in this case the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, is nothing. Nobody would access it. So it is a state asset and any income generated from it belongs to the state," he said.
Frans said Yusril could be charged with abuse of power leading to the enrichment of individuals and corporations for his move to issue two decrees, one appointing PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika (SRD) to build the website, and the second activating it.
The decrees allowed SRD and the ministry's cooperatives unit to take all the revenue generated from the project -- 90 percent of the money for the company and the rest for the unit and senior ministry officials.
Under Article 3 of the 1999 corruption law, any official that abuses power, opportunities or facilities linked to his or her job to enrich himself or herself, others or a corporation, causing state losses, can be jailed for up to 20 years.
Yusril has denied any wrongdoing in the case, saying it was permissible to appoint SRD directly because the online project did not involve state money.
He claimed the case was politically motivated, designed to smear his reputation during his campaign to run for president next year.
Through the website (www.sisminbakum.com) launched in 2001, legal entities can register for permits and nominate notaries. The services on offer range in price from Rp 250,000 to Rp 1 million.
According to the AGO, the directorate general received 200 applications daily from notaries throughout the country, generating monthly revenue of between Rp 5 billion and Rp 9 billion.
Zainal Arifin Muchtar, executive director of the Center for Anti-Corruption Studies (Pukat) at Gadjah Mada University, shared Frans' opinion.
The website is a state facility and therefore any income generated from it must be submitted to the state, Zainal said.
"We challenge the AGO to build arguments based on this comprehensive legal reasoning without any political motives," he said.
The AGO is working with the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis Center (PPATK) to detect the flow of stolen funds from the online project.
"We hope the PPATK will shed light on the distribution of the money from 2001 to 2008 for us," assistant attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendi said Friday.
