KPK Sides with Tempo on Asian Agri Case
Saturday, 02 August, 2008 | 11:19 WIB

Tempo Interactive, Jakarta:Khaidir said it was Vincentius Amin Sutanto who reported the tax fraud in
Asian Agri. The KPK team then went to Singapore to meet with Vincent, who submitted evidence in the form of documents and hard disks. “He gave suitcases of evidence,” he said.

The KPK analyzed the data and decided they belonged to the tax department. “So we handed the data to the Tax Directorate-General,” Khaidir said.

Because Tempo published the article on Asian Agri, the company filed a defamation lawsuit against Tempo chief editor, Toriq Hadad and PT Tempo Inti Media, demanding that the magazine pay Rp 5,5 billion in damages.
Asian Agri Groups’ lawyer, Sugeng Teguh Santoso had objected to Khaidir giving testimony in court. However, the panel of judges overruled his objection.

Members of the Indonesian Anti Forest Destruction Group, Chapter 28 Defenders Alliance, and the Indonesian Corruption Watch staged a demonstration at the court yesterday, in protest of the previous court’s
verdict which essentially muzzled the press.

The demonstrators’ spokesperson, Agus Sudibyo, said the court should not be a tool to limit freedom of press. He said the judge’s verdict can cause media organizations to go bankrupt, which is the same as banning press freedom. “We thought such bans ended in 1998,” said Agus.
SUTARTO