Tom Lembong: I Was Taught New Words "Tawakal" By Fellow Prisoners

JAKARTA - The Minister of Trade (Mendag) for the 2015 period '2016 Thomas Trikasih Lembong (Tom Lembong) said that he was taught a new word in a detention center (rutan) by fellow Muslim prisoners, namely the word "belief".

"We have fought for it all out, as well as possible, and with respect. The rest is in the hands of God," said Tom Lembong while reading the duplicate or response to the public prosecutor's replica at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Monday, July 14.

Thus, he remains on his request to the Panel of Judges in order to release him from all demands of the public prosecutor.

Like everything in his life, he also admitted that in the end he would entrust everything to the Almighty, according to his religion, namely the Lord Jesus.

Tom Lembong did not forget to pray for the Panel of Judges who handled his trial, his legal advisers, prosecutors, friends, relatives, supporters, sympathizers, and the public he loved.

He also offered prayers to those who taught him about true love, especially his wife, Ciska and their children, Thalia and Max.

"So that all parties in this case are always protected by God Almighty and always blessed with good luck," he said.

Meanwhile, Tom Lembong was dragged into the defendant in the alleged corruption case of sugar importation at the Ministry of Trade in 2015 '2016.

In that case, he was charged with imprisonment for 7 years and a fine of Rp. 750 million, provided that if the fine was not paid, it would be replaced (subsidiary) with imprisonment for 6 months.

Tom Lembong was charged with causing state financial losses of Rp578.1 billion, among others, for issuing an import recognition letter or approval of imports of raw crystal sugar for the 2015'2016 period to 10 companies without being based on inter-ministerial coordination meetings and without any recommendations from the Ministry of Industry.

The letter of import recognition or approval of imports of raw crystal sugar for the 2015'2016 period to the parties is allegedly given to import raw crystal sugar to be processed into white crystal sugar, even though Tom Lembong knows the company has no right to process raw crystal sugar into white crystal sugar because the company is a refined sugar company.

He is also said to have not appointed a state-owned company (BUMN) to control the availability and stabilization of sugar prices, but to appoint the Kartika Cooperative Identification (Inkopkar), the Main Cooperative of the Indonesian National Police (Inkoppol), the Indonesian National Police Cooperative Center (Puskopol), and the TNI/Polri Employee Welfare Cooperative Unit (SKKP).

For his actions, Tom Lembong is threatened with a crime as regulated in Article 2 paragraph (1) or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) 1st of the Criminal Code.