Ex-Governor of Bank Indonesia Jailed

On Tuesday, 16 June, Ex-Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Sahril Sabirin was sent to the Cipinang Penitentiary, East Jakarta, to serve his two years sentence passed by the Supreme Court in its Judicial Review for his role in the now defunct Bank Bali credit scandal case in 1999.

According to The Jakarta Globe, Sahril (65) was disappointed with this verdict considering that earlier the Supreme Court has confirmed the verdict of the Jakarta High Court that freed him of charges made by the Prosecutors. However, he said that as a law abiding citizen, he would serve the sentence.

Another Defendant in the same case, businessman Djoko Tjandra, failed to appear to serve his sentence, therefore the Attorney General Office will serve him a second summons. More details about Djoko Tjandra shall be discussed in a separate post.

Sahril Sabirin is the second ex-Governor of BI jailed after his successor Burhanuddin Abdullah was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment last year for a different corruption case.

Detik reported that earlier Sahril was sentenced by the District Court of Central Jakarta to 3 years imprisonment, but was later freed by the Appellate Court (High Court), and by the Cassation Court (Supreme Court).
Due to these facts, the Prosecutors have requested the Supreme Court to conduct Judicial Review. According to Sahril’s lawyer M. Assegaf the verdict is contradictory to the Criminal Procedural Law (KUHAP) Article 263 which stated that a Judicial Review should be submitted by a Defendant. Although the Justice Law stipulated that a Judicial Review can be requested by any parties concerned, the Constitutional Court has decided 'the parties concerned' should be interpreted as the Defendant and its heirs. Due to this controversy, Sahril and his lawyer are planning to challenge said Supreme Court's verdict.

I hope that the further processing of this case would be carried out smoothly according to the valid laws, and would not be politized by Candidates who are running for the Presidential Election on 8 July 2009.