Prosecutors submit an appeal document on Newmont?s pollution case

Prosecutors have submitted an appeal document in a bid to overturn a ruling clearing PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR), a local unit of US gold miner Newmont Mining Corp., officials said on Tuesday.

 

"We submitted the document to Manado District Court on Monday. We are filing an appeal because the judges' ruling is not in line with Indonesian law," head of  the prosecution team in the case, Purwanta Sudarmadji, said as quoted by Reuters.

 

Luhut Pangaribuan, Newmont's lawyer, said the action breached Indonesian law because the law prohibited an appeal if a defendant was acquitted on all charges.

 

"We are puzzled as to why the prosecution thinks an appeal would yield a different result, especially an appeal that is in contradiction to the law," Pangaribuan said in a statement sent via email.

 

On April 24, a North Sulawesi district court acquitted NMR and its American president director, Richard Ness of charges they violated pollution laws in Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi. (*)