SP/Arnold Sianturi, Medan – A former senior police officer's wife who has been accused of illegal logging has had key items of evidence returned to her despite prosecutors appealing the case to the Supreme Court.
Attorney Roder Nababan, who is not a party to the case, said that investigators were not authorized to return the pieces of evidence unless it was ordered by a court.
"It's against the law to return pieces of evidence to the defendant who was acquitted by the court but whose verdict was in the process of appeal in Supreme Court. Investigators made a big mistake and violated the law for returning the pieces of evidence because it's not the investigators' authority to return them," Roder said on Saturday.
He suspected that many people were involved in efforts to free T.N., the wife of the former North Sumatra Police chief, from the illegal logging charge, which carries a potential punishment of more than five years. He said conspirators may include investigators, prosecutors, witnesses from related institutions and court officers.
"It's strongly believed that there's some kind of a game in this case. Prosecutors only demanded a five-month prison term although the dossiers stated that it was an illegal logging case. The minimum punishment for illegal logging case is five years in prison. The appeals filed by the attorney's office was just an effort to divert the people's attention," Roder said.
Roder said that the weak dossier and pre-arranged witness testimonies enabled the court to acquit the defendants, which included T.N.
He said that none of the judges protested against the investigators returning pieces of evidence to the defendant. He added that the investigators' action was a form of contempt against the court and the law.
"This is the worst in the history of legal enforcement if investigators returned the pieces of evidence to the owner while [she's] still undergoing a legal process. The returning of the pieces of evidence by the investigators was based on the order of their superior. Therefore the superior that issued the order must be processed legally. There's no one above the law, not even the president, National Police chief or the provincial police chief," Roder said.
Safruddin Kalo, a crime expert from North Sumatra University, said that police would be breaking the law if they returned pieces of evidence while prosecutors had filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Gandi Parapat, coordinator of Indonesian Political and Legal Monitoring Center (PMPHI), said that investigators never submitted the police investigation report (BAP) on T.N. to prosecutors despite her dominant role in the illegal logging case in Meriah Dolok village in Simalungun district.
"Hundreds of hectares of protected forests were deforested in Simalungun. The deforested forest was supposed to support the Toba Lake. The wife of the former North Sumatra Police chief played a dominant role in the illegal logging case. Aside from the police general's wife, the wife of the former district police chief should also be suspected to be involved," Gandi said last week.