Low-ranking police officer was sentenced to two years in
jail, far less than the 20 years requested by prosecutors, for his involvement
in corruption scandal that threatened to drag in powerful police officers.
Condemnation has erupted at the decision by a court in West
Papua province to hand down a two-year sentence to a police officer for illegal
logging, despite strong evidence that he may have laundered up to Rp 1.5
trillion ($127 million) in funds obtained from smuggling fuel and exporting a
protected timber species.
The short sentence handed to Labora Sitorus, a
low-ranking member of the Papua Police who could have faced up to 20 years
under the charges brought by prosecutors, was a clear indication that something
was covered up during the trial, said Dian Adriawan, a criminal law
expert at Jakarta’s Trisakti University.
He questioned the decision by the court in the town of
Sorong, West Papua, on Monday to acquit Labora of the most serious charge under
the nation’s 2010 Anti-Money-Laundering Law.
“If he had been convicted of Article 3 of the 2010 law [on
laundering criminal proceeds], then the court would also have had to convict
him of the connected charge under Article 5,” Dian said.
A money laundering conviction which would have obliged the
court to publicly name the recipients of the criminal proceeds, which allegedly
include high-ranking police officers, he said.
Labora was instead found guilty on one count under the 1999
Forestry Law. Prosecutors had also indicted him under the 2002 Oil and Gas Law
for alleged fuel smuggling, but he was acquitted of that charge.
Had the court found him guilty on all three charges, he
could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined up to Rp 10
billion.
Labora’s case electrified the nation last year when the
National Police confirmed findings by the Financial Transaction Reports and
Analysis Center (PPATK), the government’s anti-money-laundering watchdog, that
up to Rp 1.5 trillion in suspicious funds had passed through the low-ranking officer’s
bank accounts between 2007 and 2012.
Police also seized a boat carrying 400,000 liters of
subsidized fuel, allegedly smuggled into Papua to be sold at a markup,
registered in Labora’s name. More than 100 containers of the rare tropical
hardwood merbau found at Surabaya’s port and destined for China were also
traced back to the officer.
Merbau, a highly valued timber, is prohibited for export in
its rough-sawn form.
At the time of Labora’s arrest, expectations were high that
the ensuing investigation would net the higher-ranking officers who were widely
believed to have taken kickbacks for allowing the illegal operations to run for
years.
However, no other suspects from the police force were named,
and the two-year sentence handed down on Monday only confirmed that local
authorities were trying to shield senior officers, Dian said.
“I believe there’s a cover-up. They’ve got the proof of the
crime, so it’s very bizarre why they haven’t traced where the proceeds went,”
he said.
He added it was inconceivable that a lone officer like
Labora would have been able to operate schemes of this scale for years without
help from higher-ups.
Indonesia Police Watch deplored the court’s failure to
name the 33 high-ranking police officers believed to have taken a cut of Labora’s
operations.
“It’s a shame that the various testimonies and evidence
presented at the trial were not considered by the panel of judges,” IPW
chair Neta S. Pane said. “From here it’s pretty apparent that
the police are covering up for their members who received money from Labora,
and that they are being protected by the force and will never be prosecuted.”
The Papua Prosecutors Office said it would immediately file
an appeal with the West Papua High Court.
“A two-year sentence is far below the prosecutors’ request
of 15 years,” said E.S. Maruli Hutagalung, head of the
prosecutors office. “Clearly it’s not commensurate with our demand, so we’re
filing an appeal.”
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