Court rules to end CPI?s workers detention

The South Jakarta District Court has granted a preliminary hearing request filed by the four workers of PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI) inflicted in an alleged corruption case, freeing them from detention while the Attorney General?s Office (AGO) continues its investigation.

The workers, who face charges of being implicated in the corruption case related to the bioremediation project in Sumatra, filed the lawsuit to question their detention in October. The four workers are Endah Rumbiyanti, Widodo, Kukuh Kertasafari, dan Bachtiar Abdul Fatah.

AGO has detained the four CPI workers since September 26, having earlier named seven suspects in the corruption case, including two workers of PT Green Planet Indonesia and PT Sumigita Jaya, the contractor of the project. CPI has since the beginning denied any wrongdoings and denounced the arrest.

CPI President Director, A. Hamid Batubara, welcomed the verdict, which was issued on Tuesday.

?As we have maintained throughout, the PT CPI bioremediation program is approved and monitored by legally authorized government regulatory bodies. The project has successfully treated enough soil to re-green more than 60 hectares of land, roughly equal to 75 football fields,? Batubara said in a statement.

Jeff Shellebarger, Chevron IndoAsia Business Unit Managing Director, said: ?PT CPI will continue to fully support our employees in this matter and believe that there is no legal justification to support corruption charges against PT CPI employees involving our bioremediation program.?

CPI has argued that all costs related to the bioremediation project carried out by PT CPI are not included in the cost recovery and, instead, has been wholly covered by PT CPI, meaning no state money that has been used for the project.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana