Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tommy's Cases

Yesterday afternoon, I drank Coffee with two lawyer friends i.e. Liza and Stephanie, at Starbuck, Kelapa Gading. After talking about a case that we handled together, we talked about the news in The Jakarta Post regarding the Verdict of the High Court in London, England, that favored Tommy in a dispute with the Indonesian government over 36 million Euros in overseas bank savings.

Here is an extract of our conversation:
"Tommy is an Invisible Man" Liza said.
“Why do you say that?” I asked
Our law enforcement agencies cannot nail him” Liza said
“Well he had served some time in prison” Stephanie said
“But he escaped for one year, return to prison for a while and released soon after, no punishment for his escape” Liza said.
He should be prosecuted for evading justice” Stephanie said.
“Yeah, but the prosecutor tends to pursue charges that lacks adequate preparations, smart tactic, and strong evidence like murder of judge, graft. Even if they are successful in the lower level courts, however they will fail at the Supreme Court” I said. “That’s why the lawyers often outsmart the prosecutors” Liza said. “Just like the above London case, if our Attorney General Office (AGO) have hired Top Lawyers who mastered the British Legal system, the result of court proceedings would have been different” Stephanie said.
“There is still a possibility to request for judicial review of the London Court Verdict that is by filing an appeal with the British Supreme Court (Privy Council). For which purpose the AGO should hire a Top Lawyer so that proper preparation can be made”. Liza said.

We concluded that the AGO should make proper preparations for every prosecutions by obtaining strong evidence, hire Top Legal Experts if necessary, and carefully decide the legal basis for their actions.

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