Chevron bioremediation suspects sentenced to 6 and 5 years in prison
Thursday, May 9 2013 - 11:02 AM WIB
The panel of judges in their verdict taken on Wednesday said that Herlan also has to pay a fine of Rp 250 million or three months in prison, and PT SGJ is required to pay for the state loss at the amount of US$ 6.9 million.
The court also sentenced Ricksy Prematuri, director of PT Green Planet Indonesia (GPI), another contractor of PT CPI, to 5 years in prison after being found guilty of committing corruption in the same bioremediation project, and had to pay a fine of Rp 200 million or two months in prison.
"It has been legally proven without any doubt that they committed the corruption consecutively with the others,? said Sudharmawatiningsih, one of the judges.
The panel of judges found Herlan of violating existing regulations on environment as he did not have a license from the ministry of environment (KLH) to treat wastes.
However, he or SGJ did the work as civil contractor under a contract with PT CPI and as such there is no need for SGJ to obtain a license to treat wastes, as according to the environment ministry?s decree no. 128/ 2003 it is only PT CPI as the emitter of the wastes that is required to have the license. Such objection was stated by Sofialdi, one of the four judges, in his dissenting opinion. Sofialdi opined that SGJ has no obligation to have the license of treating waste and only PT CPI that is obliged to have it.
Sofiadi also said that the method and testing of the contaminated soil sample by the bioremediation expert of the attorney general Edison Effendi cannot be used as a legal evidence in court since the sample was tested hastily in the laboratory of the attorney general that has no accreditation.
Sofialdi, therefore, stated that Herlan should be released of all charges.
Earlier in previous sessions of the court, the witness from the environment ministry, Masnellyarti Hilman as fourth deputy of the ministry, said that the environment ministry does not oblige a subcontractor of such project to have the license to treat wastes, that the ministry is only concerned with Chevron as the wastes emitter.
Separately, PT CPI Corporate Communication Manager Dony Indrawan, said that teams of auditors from upstream authority SKK Migas, BPKP, and BPK, did not find any irregularities or corruption cases in the bioremediation project during the period of 2006-2011.
After hearing the court?s verdict, Herlan said that he will seek an appeal with the higher court. ?I will seek an appeal, I?ll fight against this decision to the fullest extent, Chevron will also fight for this,? he said.
Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb.