East Luwu Police Chief AKBP Silvester Simamora is suspected of abusing his authority in issuing a letter addressed to PT Bintang Eight Resources (BDR) in order to suspend payments to nickel that had been sent by PT Citra Lampia Mandiri (CLM) while still under the leadership of Helmut Hermawan.
The letter numbered B/1197/XI/RES.1.8./2022 dated November 16, 2022 is suspected of being part of the police's covert interest in the chaos of the leadership struggle for the mining company PT CLM. Helmut Hermawan's attorney, Rusdianto Matulatuwa, said that the police had acted too much with the emergence of the letter. According to Rusdianto, the matter of paying-paying in this case is not a matter for the police.
The East Luwu Police are considered to have abused their authority by interfering in civil matters between two parties, namely Helmut Hermawan and Zainal Abidin Siregar related to PT CLM.
"What the police have done, I consider it very excessive. Pay-paying cases are pure civil matters, while the police as law officials are tasked with only maintaining security and protection. The emergence of this letter is far beyond its authority and actually confirms the occurrence of partiality between the two parties who are in dispute," said Rusdi in Jakarta, Friday, March 31.
Because according to him, the signing of the nickel purchase agreement was carried out long before the criminal process and as a buyer, PT Bintang Eight Resources was obliged to make payments.
"Yes, that's right, before the criminal process, it looks like the police with the letter, it seems that he is more enthusiastic than the party in question. The police have a very strong interest in this case. What is it? I said it in a negative form," he said.
Meanwhile, a criminal law expert at Gajah Mada University, Muhammad Fatahillah Akbar, assessed that a person's civil rights were not lost even though it was being processed criminally.
"The civil rights are not lost in the criminal process. Even the revocation of rights can only be decided by the court as an additional crime," said Akbar.
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According to him, in the process of being fingerprinted by the police, the limitation of rights can only go through forced attempts such as confiscation. However, he said, if a legal asset such as payment cannot be limited because it is not included in the confiscated property.
"Unless this property is the result of a crime," he continued.
He added that the police did not have the authority to prohibit buyers from making payments that had signed business contracts, even though the first party was undergoing a criminal case situation.
Moreover, the contract cooperation was carried out before the investigation of a criminal case occurred. So according to him, the forced efforts made by the police have no legal basis.
"If (the abuse of authority) must be assessed further, the point is that the forced effort has no legal basis," he said.
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