Blueray Cargo Boss John Field Does Not Appeal in Customs Importation Bribery Case

Blueray Cargo Group owner John Field. (Photo: File)

JAKARTA - The owner of the Blueray Cargo Group, John Field, will not appeal against the verdict handed down by the Jakarta Corruption Court on Friday, July 10. The decision was made because from the beginning he admitted that he had given money to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise officials to facilitate his business.

This was conveyed by Dinalara Butarbutar as Blueray Cargo's lawyer after John Field and the company's senior executives were sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of Rp. 300 million, with 100 days in prison.

"We are aware that the gifts made by John Field and his friends from Blueray must have legal consequences," said Dinlara after the verdict.

Dinlara said John Field and Blueray officials were consistent from the beginning of the trial. They never denied the provision of money to officials of the Customs and Excise Service, including when presenting their defense.

"From the beginning we have always been optimistic and we have never denied that the gift happened. We all admit that the gift happened. In our defense, we clearly said that if the gift was something wrong, then we asked for the lightest punishment from the panel of judges," he said.

Even though he received the verdict, Dinalara assessed that there were elements in the article that his party considered had not been fulfilled perfectly. However, this is not an excuse for his client to continue the case to the appeal level.

He added that the decision to accept the verdict was also based on the fact that the recipient was a state organizer or state civil apparatus so that the act did indeed have criminal consequences.

"Considering that the recipient here is a state official or civil servant. So that's what led us not to take legal action for appeal but we accept what the panel of judges decided," he said.

Dinalara also hopes that this case will be a lesson for all parties and encourage improvements in service management in the customs sector so that the practice of giving to individual officers does not recur.

Because the customs service system is also expected to be more transparent so that businesses can carry out their activities in a healthy manner. "We believe that through this case, businesses, especially in customs, will run well and this will not happen again," he said.

As previously reported, Presiding Judge Brelly Yuniar Dien stated that John was proven to have given bribes to Customs officials in total of Rp91.77 billion, together with the Operational Manager of the Blueray Cargo Port Clearance, Dedy Kurniawan, and the Head of the Blueray Cargo Import Documentation Team, Andri.

"Declaring the defendants to be legally and convincingly proven guilty of participating in ongoing acts of corruption, as charged in the primary indictment," said the Chief Justice in the verdict hearing at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court, Friday, July 10, reported by ANTARA.

The Chief Judge explained that the bribe was given with the aim that Customs would try to get the imported goods belonging to the Blueray Cargo Group out of the supervision process at the Customs Directorate General of Customs.

Unlike John Field, judges Dedy and Andri, namely for 1 year and 6 months (1.5 years).

Then, the three defendants were also sentenced to a fine in the amount of Rp. 300 million subsider 100 days in prison and Dedy and Andri each Rp. 200 million subsider 80 days in prison.

They were found guilty of violating the criminal offense stipulated in Article 605 paragraph (1) letter a in conjunction with Article 20 letter c jo. Article 126 paragraph (1) of the National Criminal Code jo. Article VII number 48 of Law Number 1 of 2026 concerning Criminal Adjustment.