Supreme Court rules detention of Newmont executives legal
Friday, March 18 2005 - 01:10 AM WIB
In December, the South Jakarta District Court ruled that the case against the men - an American, an Australian and three Indonesians - was illegal because police had failed to inform the environment ministry of their intention to arrest them.
On Thursday, court spokesman Hasbi Yunda told reporters that the Supreme Court had overruled the earlier verdict, which had forced authorities to shelve the case against the executives on charges stemming from the alleged pollution at a Newmont mine on Sulawesi Island.
"The Supreme Court has ruled that the detention of the five Newmont executives was legal," Yunda said. "It also ruled that police can now continue their interrogation and investigation of their cases," he said.
Yunda did not explain the reasons for the ruling. The Supreme Court, which meets behind closed doors, ruled on the case on Monday.
Police already have completed their investigation into the executives from Newmont Minahasa Raya, the Denver-based company's local unit. They said Thursday they would now formally hand the case file to prosecutors, who are expected to charge the men soon.
The men are accused of corporate crimes in connection with the alleged pollution. If found guilty, they could face up to 15 years in jail.
Lawyers for Newmont were not available for comment on the ruling, the latest in a series of legal developments affecting the company since the pollution allegations first appeared six months ago.
The environment ministry announced last week it was suing the company for US$133.6 million in compensation over the alleged pollution.
Jakarta's determination to press charges against Newmont has cheered green activists, who have long complained that foreign mining operations in Indonesia skirt environmental laws. But it risks spooking investors who complain that Indonesia's legal system and police are inefficient and corrupt.
Tests on the bay's water have produced conflicting results.
The World Health Organization and an initial Environment Ministry report found the water unpolluted. But a subsequent ministry study found arsenic levels in the seabed were 100 times higher at the waste-dumping site than in other parts of the bay.
Newmont stopped mining two years ago at the Sulawesi site, 1,300 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta, after extracting all the gold it could, but kept processing ore there until Aug. 31, 2004, when the mine was permanently shut. (*)