Lawyer: Tom Lembong Never Reprimanded by Jokowi When He Was Minister of Trade

Tom Lembong/(ANTARA PHOTO/Rivan Awal Lingga/aww.)

JAKARTA - The legal team of Thomas Trikasih Lembong or Tom Lembong stated that his client was never reprimanded by former President Jokowi when he served as Minister of Trade for the 2015-2016 period.

"In fact, during his term as Minister of Trade, the applicant never received a reprimand from the President at that time," said Tem Lembong's legal counsel, Zaid Mushafi in a pretrial lawsuit hearing at the South Jakarta District Court as reported by ANTARA, Monday, November 18.

Zaid emphasized that Tom Lembong's actions as Minister of Trade when issuing the sugar import policy had been affirmed so that it had become the President's responsibility in every decision.

"The applicant's actions as Minister of Trade have been affirmed by the President as head of state and the applicant's leader. Therefore, it has completely shifted to the President's responsibility," he said.

Thus, he emphasized that the determination of the applicant as a suspect was invalid. Because there was no sufficient initial evidence as required in Article 1 number 14 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Constitutional Court Decision Number 21/PUU-XII/2014.

The respondent's statement, he continued, regarding the state loss of Rp400 billion without being based on the BPK audit results is an act of abuse of power and is a form of criminalization of the applicant.

Furthermore, the South Jakarta District Court will hold a hearing for the defendant's exception or rebuttal on Tuesday (19/11), submission of evidence on Wednesday (20/11) and presenting expert witnesses on Thursday (21/11).

Tom Lembong filed a pretrial motion after being named a suspect by the Attorney General's Office in the alleged corruption case of sugar imports at the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) in 2015-2016.

Previously, the AGO stated that in January 2016, suspect Tom Lembong signed a letter of assignment to PT PPI which essentially assigned the company to fulfill the national sugar stock and stabilize prices, through cooperation with domestic sugar producers to process raw crystal sugar into 300,000 tons of white crystal sugar.

Then PT PPI made a cooperation agreement with eight companies.

The AGO stated that in order to fulfill the sugar stock and stabilize prices, what should be imported is white crystal sugar directly and only State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), namely PT PPI, can import.

However, with the knowledge and approval of suspect Tom Lembong, the agreement to import raw crystal sugar was signed.