Criminal Expert Says Ike Kusumawati Case Criminalization: Money with Husband Cannot Be an Object of Corruption

JAKARTA - The review trial (PK) for the alleged embezzlement of billions of rupiah in money allegedly against the defendant Ike Kusumawati was held again at the South Jakarta District Court.

The agenda is known to be listening to the testimony of the Criminal Expert, Efendi Saragih. Not only that, the defendant Ike was also presented through virtual or zoom.

In this trial, the Retrial Process (PK) filed by Ike Kusumawati revealed shocking facts related to alleged perverted and criminalized justice.

The applicant's legal team, Erdi Surbakti, stated that his party had collected at least nine novum (new evidence) which proved that there was evidence engineering from the investigation stage to the Supreme Court (MA) verdict.

Erdi Surbakti explained that of the nine novums submitted, two of them were proof of a certificate from Bank BTN which broke the accusation of the reporting witness, Edy Syahputra.

The evidence is in the form of a fictitious account, namely the account number used by the reporter in the police report at the Polda Metro Jaya was not registered at the BTN Bank Bekasi Branch after being confirmed in writing.

Then, the manipulation of the RTGS slip or the BCA RTGS deposit slip which states '2 months of trust money' is confirmed to be false.

"So Bank BTN stated that there were no remarks or notes in the original bank account of the applicant. This clearly violates Law No. 3 of 2011 concerning Fund Transfers," said Erdi.

Evidence of Chat Controversy, there are 7 new chat evidence stating that the money belongs to Raden Nuh (Ike's husband), which is opposite to the 10 chats used by the prosecutor to punish the applicant.

Not only that, the lawyer also highlighted the existence of a real legal contradiction (inconsistency) namely regarding the PN Jakpus Civil Court Decision, the lawsuit of the reporting witness Edy Syahputra for Rp2.1 billion was rejected because there was no authentic proof of ownership.

Then the Supreme Court's Criminal Decision, Ike Kusumawati was actually convicted of embezzling Rp1.1 billion based on evidence that was questioned for its validity.

In addition, the statement from Criminal Law Expert, Dr. Effendi Saragih who was present in the trial provided critical notes.

According to him, the application of Article 372 of the Criminal Code (embezzlement) in this case is completely inappropriate.

"Because the money was sent at the request of her husband (Raden Nuh) and is a common property that has not been formally divided, then legally this falls into the realm of embezzlement in the family. What should be applied is Article 367 of the old Criminal Code, not Article 372," said the expert.

The expert also added that the evidence of the complainant's right of Rp. 1.1 billion was dropped by law because Raden Nuh, under oath at the South Jakarta District Court (April 2025), had denied ever making a statement dated April 5, 2020 which was the basis for imprisonment.

The Legal Advisory Team found at least 20 mistakes by judges at the cassation level. One of the most prominent is the inconsistency of the value of the claim in the three summonses of the reporter, which varied from Rp. 2.1 billion to Rp. 1.1 billion.

"We see that there is a structured, systemic, and massive crime involving law enforcement officials. This is a criminalization effort by the brother-in-law supported by the applicant's own husband," added Erdi.

Ike Kusumawati hopes that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will carry out strict supervision of this PK process.

"We believe that the Constitutional Court will grant the PK's request and free Ike Kusumawati for the sake of upholding material truth and justice," he concluded.