MAKI Files Lawsuit Asking Judge To Determine Cooking Oil Mafia Suspect

Boyamin Saiman/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Society (MAKI) filed a pretrial lawsuit to the Central Jakarta District Court, Tuesday, against the Minister of Trade regarding the cooking oil mafia case which was canceled.

MAKI Coordinator, Boyamin Saiman, said in the lawsuit MAKI requested the Sole Judge Pretrial Central Jakarta District Court to order the Ministry of Trade to immediately announce the suspect of the cooking oil mafia.

"MAKI requests the Judges of the Central Jakarta District Court to issue a decision ordering the Respondent, the Director-General of Consumer Protection and Order of Commerce, the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia to immediately determine the suspect for criminal acts of consumer protection and criminal acts of trafficking for rare and expensive incidents of cooking oil allegedly committed by the cooking oil mafia", said Boyamin, Tuesday, March 29.

MAKI registered the pretrial lawsuit this afternoon at 14.00 WIB. This is a form of reaction to the Minister of Trade's broken promise regarding the cancellation of the determination of the cooking oil mafia suspect.

As for the reasons for the application for a pretrial lawsuit, firstly, the missing and high price of cooking oil in the market was allegedly carried out by irresponsible persons in hoarded it. These elements play with the stock and price of cooking oil so that people find it difficult to get it in the market.

Meanwhile, he continued, the Director-General of Consumer Protection and Trade Regulations of the Ministry of Trade (the respondent) as the supervisor of the Civil Servant Investigator (PPNS) in charge of consumer protection and trade order, have a sufficient number of PPNS to conduct investigations on rare cases and the high cost of cooking oil in the country.

"Since 2017 the respondent has had 73 PPNS, the PPNS should be able to investigate rare cases and the high cost of cooking oil", said Boyamin.

Another reason is that there have been criminal acts of consumer protection and criminal acts of trafficking in cases of rare and expensive cooking oil allegedly committed by several unscrupulous entrepreneurs or the so-called cooking oil mafia by the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi.

Even on Friday, March 18th, the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia has said that his party has already pocketed the names of the potential suspects for hoarding cooking oil and will be disclosed on Monday, March 21st.

In addition, the PPNS of the Ministry of Trade has investigated the alleged crime and found criminal acts in the form of trafficking crimes and consumer protection crimes based on the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, Law Number 1999 concerning Consumer Protection and Law Number 7 the Year 2014 concerning Trade.

"The Minister of Trade has also conveyed the mechanism for hoarding cooking oil carried out by potential suspects, such as subsidized bulk oil being transported to upper-middle-class industries, repackaged into premium cooking oil, and transported abroad. It is suspected that there was a criminal act of the Consumer Protection Act", said Boyamin.

According to Boyamin, investigators have found at least two pieces of evidence that are sufficient and have fulfilled the elements of a criminal act and are preparing to name a suspect, as stated by the Minister of Trade in a Working Meeting with the Indonesian House of Representatives last Friday, March 18 and has been published in several media. However, until the submission of this aquo pretrial, the respondent has not determined/delivered the name of the suspect.

"The respondent's action of not specifying/delivering the name of the suspect is a form of stopping an illegal and unlawful investigation", said Boyamin.

In its petition (Petitum), MAKI requests the Sole Judge examining the case to declare the termination of the investigation of the respondent invalid as the supervisor of the PPNS in charge of the Consumer Protection and Trade Order who is investigating the mechanism and alleged criminal acts above, materially and further. ordered the respondent to identify the suspect.