Lawyer: Tom Lembong Was Never Reprimanded By Jokowi During The Jabat Of The Minister Of Trade

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

JAKARTA - Thomas Trikasih Lembong's legal team or Tom Lembong said his client had never been reprimanded by former President Jokowi while serving as Minister of Trade for the 2015-2016 period.

"In fact, during his tenure as Minister of Trade, the applicant never received a warning from the President in office at that time," said Tem Lembong's attorney, Zaid Mushafi in a pretrial 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 a sugar import policy had been confirmed so that it was the President's responsibility in every decision.

"The actions of the applicant as Minister of Trade have been confirmed by the President as the head of state and are the leaders of the applicant. 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 is no sufficient preliminary evidence as required in Article 1 number 14 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia Number 21/PUU-XII/2014.

As for the respondent's statement, he continued, related to the state loss of Rp. 400 billion without being based on the results of the BPK audit, it was an act of abuse of power (abuse of power) and was a form of criminalization of the applicant.

Furthermore, the South Jakarta District Court will hold an exception or refutation trial for the defendant on Tuesday (19/11), handing over evidence on Wednesday (20/11) and presenting expert witnesses on Thursday (21/11).

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

Previously, the AGO stated that in January 2016 the suspect Tom Lembong signed an assignment letter to PT PPI which essentially assigned the company to meet national sugar stocks and price stabilization, in collaboration with domestic sugar producers to process raw crystal sugar into sugar crystals of 300,000 tons.

Then PT PPI made a cooperation agreement with eight companies.

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

However, with the suspect Tom Lembong's knowledge and approval, the approval of imports of raw crystal sugar was signed.