Tom Lembong's Attorney: Determination Of His Client As A Suspect Does Not Meet Human Rights Elements

Thomas Trikasih Lembong or Tom Lembong is a suspect in the alleged corruption case of importing sugar from the Ministry of Trade. (Diah-VOI)

JAKARTA - Tom Lembong's legal team assessed that the appointment of his client as a suspect in the alleged corruption case of sugar imports at the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) for the 2015 '2016 period by the Attorney General's Office (AGO), did not fulfill the human rights element (HAM).

"We strongly believe that there are actions from the Attorney General's Office that do not protect human rights from Mr. Tom Lembong himself, including appointing or selecting legal advisors in accordance with the rules in the Criminal Procedure Code," said Tom Lembong's attorney, Zaid Mushafi, at the Komnas HAM Building, Jakarta, Friday, December 6, confiscated by Antara.

He said citizens who are in conflict with the law have the right to receive legal assistance and the right to elect legal counsel. However, the AGO did not fulfill the two rights to Tom Lembong.

He explained that his client underwent the last examination as a witness on October 29, 2024 and the examination ended at 16.00 WIB. However, he said, until 19.00 WIB, Tom did not get an explanation and was only allowed to wait in the examination room.

Then, after 19.00 WIB, Tom was informed that he had been named a suspect and was detained and given a lawyer from an advocate from the AGO.

"In fact, Mr. Tom is a person who is able to appoint a legal advisor. Why was that right not given? If indeed this process went well and properly according to the procedure," he said.

Zaid also added that Tom Lembong's family members were not given any notification regarding Tom's determination as a suspect.

"We also confirmed to Mrs. Siska as the wife and to the family that it turned out that the letter of determination of the suspect and the detention letter was not given to the family during the process of determining the suspect and during the detention process. What is this? Even though the family has the right to know. It turns out that the family only found out it was from the media. There is no official notification letter," he said.

Therefore, Tom Lembong's family and legal team complained to the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in the hope that the agency could investigate further regarding the law enforcement process against Tom.

"Hopefully, after Komnas HAM will be able to carry out investigations and investigations and results will be found, now that is a result that we are really waiting for," he said.

As for the submitted report, Komnas HAM stated that it had accepted it and would study it first.

"We certainly have to study this case because we just received an audience request two days ago," said Komnas HAM member for Complaints Hari Kurniawan.

In accordance with existing provisions, Hari said, the complaint service at Komnas HAM will be handled for 7 working days.

Previously, the AGO had named two suspects in the case, namely Tom Lembong as Minister of Trade for the 2015'2016 period and CS as Director of Business Development of PT PPI.

In his statement, the AGO said that this case began when Tom Lembong as Minister of Trade at that time gave PT AP a permit to import 105,000 tons of crystal sugar to be processed into white crystal sugar.

In fact, in the inter-ministerial coordination meeting (rakor) on May 12, 2015, it was concluded that Indonesia was experiencing a sugar surplus so it did not require sugar imports.