Judge Sunoto 'Dissenting Opinion', Considers Ex-Director Of ASDP Et Al Not To Do Corruption

Chief Judge Sunoto in the trial of reading the verdict of the panel of judges regarding the acquisition case of PT Jembatan Nusantara at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Thursday (20/11/2025). ANTARA/Agatha Olivia Victoria

JAKARTA - Chief Justice Sunoto stated a dissenting opinion regarding the alleged corruption case in the business cooperation and acquisition process of PT Jembatan Nusantara by PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero) in 2019-2022.

According to Sunoto, the actions of the three defendants in the case were not a criminal act of corruption, but a business decision that was not optimal, but was taken in good faith, which was protected by the Business Judgement Rule, and had no malicious intent to harm state finances.

"The right accountability for the business decision is through the mechanism of civil lawsuits, administrative sanctions, and improvement of the company's governance system," said Chief Judge Sunoto at the hearing reading the verdict of the panel of judges at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court, Thursday, November 20, as reported by ANTARA.

The three defendants referred to, namely the President Director of PT ASDP for the 2017 period 2024 Ira Puspadewi, Commercial Director and Service of PT ASDP for the 2019 period 2024 Muhammad Yusuf Hadi, and Director of Planning and Development of PT ASDP for the 2020 period 2024 Harry Muhammad Adhi Caksono.

The presiding judge emphasized that the criminal sentence is an ultimum remedium (last resort) which can only be used for actions that really fulfill the elements of a criminal act and are carried out with malicious intent.

Thus, Sunoto assessed that the punishment of the defendants in such factual conditions would have a very broad impact on the Indonesian business world, especially State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN).

In addition, the director is considered to be very afraid to take risky business decisions even though the decision is needed for the company's growth and development.

"The best professions will think many times to accept leadership positions in SOEs because they are worried that any non-optimal business decisions can be criminalized," he said.

Sunoto's opinion will ultimately harm the national interest because SOEs require courage to organize and develop to compete at the global level.

Therefore, he said, although the actions of the defendants were proven to be carried out, the act was not a criminal act because the elements of the criminal act of corruption as charged were not fulfilled convincingly.

"So based on Article 191 paragraph (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the defendants should have been declared free from all lawsuits or ontslag van rechtsvervolging," said Sunoto.

In this case, the three defendants have been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing a criminal act of corruption that was carried out together so as to harm state finances worth Rp1.25 trillion.

Corruption acts were carried out by facilitating the implementation of operational cooperation (KSO) between PT ASDP and PT Jembatan Nusantara (JN) to enrich Adjie as the owner of PT JN's benefits worth state financial losses.

Thus, Ira Puspadewi was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of Rp. 500 million, provided that if the fine is not paid, it will be replaced (subsider) with imprisonment for 3 months.

Meanwhile, Yusuf Hadi and Harry Muhammad were sentenced to 4 years in prison each and a fine of Rp. 250 million each, subsidiary to 3 months in prison.

For their actions, the three defendants were declared to have violated Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the 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.