Eddy Pratama & Heru Andriyanto – In a surprise ruling, the Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it had upheld an appeal by former Justice Ministry official Romli Atmasasmita and overturned his guilty verdict in a corruption scandal involving a fraudulent online corporate registration service.
The top court had earlier declared another defendant in the same case, Yohanes Waworuntu, guilty of corruption and even raised his jail term to five years.
The three-member panel in the Supreme Court were unanimous in deciding that Romli did not make any personal gain from the Web site, that his actions caused no loss to the state and that the online service had continued to work normally. "Romli simply cannot be sentenced," said Achmad Taufik, one of the panel of judges.
By contrast, Yohanes was earlier ordered to return around Rp 370 billion ($41 million) in stolen state money by a separate panel.
Romli was sentenced to two years in jail by a district court in Jakarta in September 2009 for initiating the online service that came under prosecutor's scrutiny for allowing disproportionate revenue sharing with its private provider and making illegal payments to ministry officials using its proceeds.
The Web site was set up to allow notarial offices across the country to register their corporate clients with the government.
Yohanes was the director of PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika, which was the sole provider of the service. The company was founded by business tycoon Hartono Tanoesoedibjo, currently awaiting trial for the same case.
Prosecutors accused Sarana of charging customers as much as Rp 1.3 million to use the service, far above the stipulated government fee of Rp 200,000.
The Attorney General's Office, which began its probe into the scandal in November 2008, said on Wednesday it was waiting for copies of the ruling before commenting.
"We first need to learn the content of the verdict before we deliver our response," said Babul Khoir Harahap, an AGO spokesman. "We need to know what considerations were made by the panel in reaching the verdict."
The remaining legal avenue to challenge a Supreme Court verdict is asking for a case review but that requires new evidence. A debate has also developed about whether prosecutors can ask for a case review, a move usually reserved for convicts or their families.
The ruling could also come as good news to former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, also a suspect in the case.
Yusril has repeatedly said government projects, including the Web service that operated between 2001 and 2008, were allowed to receive private funding and that there was no law stating that the entire revenue from the Web site must go to state coffers.