Defense lawyers for Thomas Trikasih Lembong, or Tom Lembong, have filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) with the South Jakarta District Court for unlawful detention of the former Trade Minister.
Ari Yusuf Amir, who leads the team of lawyers for Tom Lembong, said that as of Tuesday, November 5, 2024, there has been no information from the AGO regarding the evidence they have as the legal gounds to detain their client.
“The AGO did not have two sufficient pieces of evidencewhen they declared pak Tom Lembong as a suspect. Until now, we do not know what evidence they have,” Ari said.
He added that the Attorney General’s Office should transparently reveal the evidence for Tom Lembong’s arrest to the public.
So far, the public only knows that Tom Lembong has been named a suspect in the sugar import case without knowing what evidence is the basis for his detention.
“The evidence and the basis for his detention should be shared with the public and made known transparently. So far it has only been reported that this problem concerns sugar importers,” Ari said.
He cited that while this case is said to be built upon an investigation into sugar imports from 2015 to 2023, therefore all related ministers throughout the 2015-2023 period should be summoned for questioning.
As of Tuesday, only Thomas Lembong has been questioned regarding the sugar import case throughout that period.
“Well, the criminal act of corruption in sugar import activities for the period of 2015 to 2023 is mentioned here. This means that if it is until 2023, they (should) have questioned all the ministers related to this period. (However), until now only pak Tom Lembong has been questioned,” he said.
Pretrial lawsuit
Ari emphasized that the AGO had violated Article 55 of the Criminal Code Procedure, which stipulates that suspects or defendants have the right to appoint their own legal advisory team.
He assessed that Tom was in a very capable state to choose his legal advisory team that the AGO did not need to provide him with a team of its choice.
“The appointment of legal counsel by the AGO violates the Criminal Code Procedure (KUHAP) as Article 55 of the KUHAP regulates that every suspect or defendant has the right to have a legal counsel appointed by himself or herself. Unless he (Tom) feels incapable and then the AGO can name one for him,” he said.
Ari stated that he would file a pretrial lawsuit against the arrest as part of the efforts to protect the defendant or suspect from arbitrary investigations that violate human rights.
“This pre-trial institution is a concept of how the supervisory function of the court is performed so that investigators will not act arbitrarily and human rights are truly protected,” he said.
