Member Of The House Of Representatives Urges The Attorney General's Office To Be Transparent And Professional In The Tom Lembong Sugar Import Case

The Minister of Trade for the 2015-2016 period Thomas Lembong (right) was investigated as a suspect in the alleged corruption case of sugar imports (doc. Antara).

JAKARTA - Member of Commission III of the DPR RI from the Golkar Party faction, Soedeson Tandra, urged the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to be transparent and professional in the pretrial hearing of the Tom Lembong case.

The pressure follows allegations that the Public Prosecutor has provided written testimonies for two expert witnesses presented by the AGO, namely Professor of the Faculty of Law, Jenderal Sudirman Hibnu Nugroho, and Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Airlangga University, Taufik Rachman.

"We ask that the investigation carried out be carried out in a transparent and accountable manner."

"This means that the investigators, in this case the prosecutor's office, must be really professional. There should not be any problems related to technical matters," he said in a statement quoted on Saturday, November 23, 2024.

He considered it would be very unprofessional if investigators were proven to have prepared written documents used by expert witnesses in the pretrial trial. Moreover, the contents of the documents are thought to be the same.

"Well, for example, regarding the last sentence. If it's the same, yes, we regret it. We didn't find any professionalism from the investigators," he said.

In addition, Soedeson appealed to the AGO and certain parties not to interfere with the independence of the judge and the pretrial process in question.

"We really have to know his background, yes. Because of this, right, it has entered the pretrial world."

"I am worried that we should not continue to be considered to be interfering in the independence of judges and the pretrial process. That was first," he said.

Soedeson believes that the Panel of Judges at the South Jakarta District Court (PN) is seriously examining the alleged sugar import case that was alleged to Tom Lembong.

He did not deny that this case became the focus of all parties, be it the government, the DPR and the community. So, it needs to be monitored openly.

"So, we just want to remind all parties. Including the public prosecutor and the judges to be completely transparent and accountable and professional," he said.

In line with Soedeson, Member of Commission III of the DPR RI, Benny K. Harman, emphasized that the law must be applied equally to fulfill the principle of equality before the law. This means that everyone is the same before the law.

Moreover, there is a presumption of political motives behind the determination of Tom Lembong as a suspect. Regarding this, Benny assessed that the AGO should dismiss this assumption by providing a transparent explanation to the public.

"The simultaneous principle of law is that the point is that the same law must be applied to everyone without difference."

"If there is a violation of the law, the sanctions must be applied to all, anyone who violates the law. Well, that's the principle," said Benny.

Therefore, said Benny, it is important for the AGO to open this case clearly in public so that the public can supervise it more carefully.

"Because so far it's only as if sugar imports. Imports of sugar, all ministers in the ministry import sugar. Imports of sugar are policies, it's not necessarily an element of unlawful acts there. We didn't know at that time the elements were," he said.

According to Benny, in order to avoid hot balls wildly continuing, the DPR even asked the AGO to be able to report them openly to the people's representatives.

"Kani asked the Attorney General's Office if possible to provide a more open and complete explanation to Commission III regarding this matter. Why? So that there are no previous accusations, that's what we ask for," he said.