Saturday 2 May 2009

Bali’s sickest joke – law enforcement

Bali’s sickest joke – law enforcement
By Bali BS News
Sep 19, 2005, 09:09

If you are unfamiliar with the story of Candi Internet AKA Balinese wife Sang Ayu, German husband Harry Bleckert and daughter Merry; our original report is here: Bali Wifi. It is about how their legal wireless Internet access business was closed down by Balinese police officers (primarily one officer Tri Kuncoro) without warrants at the apparent bequest of one of their competitors, by seizing Candi’s equipment without a court order, saying simply Candi was operating an illegal web site and business. How the police failed to bring their original case to court as it was so weak, yet still did not return the equipment. How then reportedly extortion money was demanded from Harry and Sang to make the problem go away by Bali’s chief prosecutor, I Bagus Wiswantanu (the man who convicted Schapelle Corby).

How instead of paying Wiswantanu, Harry published the facts of the police and prosecution collusion and corruption on his web site. Which act obviously annoyed the Bali police and judiciary, plus made them keen to cover their unlawful tracks, so they invented a new and perhaps even more ludicrous reason for having seized Candi's equipment; that the equipment was a health risk. So then Harry filed a complaint with the Indonesian Commission for Corruption Reduction, although we believe the commission to be nothing more than an exercise in PR for the benefit of foreign governments and investors (see our report: Worthless Indonesian Corruption Commission). In apparent escalating retaliation, the police officers and colluding judiciary then jailed wife Sang on the basis she ignored a police summons, which she did not and which was unlawfully served anyway. Then while Sang was in jail for the preposterous claim she ignored a summons for a investigation which should have legally been halted anyway, the police and judiciary so clearly colluded and conspired to come up with another reason to hold onto Candi’s equipment and keep Sang in jail.

It seems clear Bali’s mafia style police and their pet prosecutors finally decided to justify their unlawful seizure and Sang’s imprisonment by claiming the case was now about the fact the equipment had not been approved by the Indonesian approvals authority. Despite the fact we are told that properly sourced telecoms equipment in Indonesia is allowed to be used for up to 12 months before it must be certified by the approvals authority under an amnesty deal, because the approvals process is so slow. Despite the fact the very same equipment is used by the two giants of telecommunications in Indonesia, Indosat and Telkom, and was sold by the main supplier for Indonesia, PT Telemedia. Despite the fact the equipment had not actually been used commercially when it was seized unlawfully without a court order. Despite the fact the equipment was not technically Candi’s anyway, as they had not fully paid for it, it was still owned by PT Telemedia. Despite the fact Candi had a legal partnership agreement with a licensed ISP in Jakarta who uses the same equipment. This clearly fraudulent and singularly selective process is not uncommon though in Indonesia, see our report: Nasty Police / Selective Indonesian Law.

When the corruption commission wrote to Harry and agreed the Balinese police officers, prosecutors and judges involved should be investigated, the police et all in Bali clearly were then very unhappy and decided to escalate things further and go for Harry himself! Harry was forced to flee Bali as the police "served" a summons which they obviously hoped he would not know about and made sure, even if he did, Harry could not comply with (they unlawfully served it on his accountant and fixed a date that was a public holiday so their office would be closed even if Harry was foolish enough to show up). A summons for the highly criticized law regarding criminal libel (see our report: Indonesian Criminal Libel), because Harry had reported their corrupt actions to the proper legal authority of the Indonesian Commission for Corruption Reduction. But Bali’s police felt they could claim this proper complaint defamed them and as there is no protection program, so Harry could be tried for criminal libel! After Harry had to tear himself away from his beloved wife and island because he knew he could achieve less in jail then he could from his native Germany. After Harry was forced to leave Bali to be with his daughter (Merry) who Harry and Sang both sent away to Germany a few months earlier in case “something“ happened to them. Harry just had to sit and wait to hear what had happened to Sang.

Now we know what has happened to Sang Ayu. On September 5th 2005 she was tried and found guilty of operating unlicensed telecommunications equipment; we understand the first ever such prosecution in Indonesia with no other prosecutions planned, despite the fact the equipment is used extensively throughout Indonesia and even Bali by small businesses and major corporations alike. Despite the fact the equipment was not legally hers (her company’s), etc., etc., etc.

It was predicted by Harry and us though. The police had unlawfully seized equipment, so they had to come up with something based on the equipment itself to justify their actions, even though they did not even mention or cite approvals as being the justification until many months after they grabbed it without a court order. They also had to justify unlawfully throwing poor Sang in jail for over 2 months. The police and judiciary also clearly had to maintain their “do not mess with us“ policy in that they felt they had to put Sang in jail to warn other people never to challenge their mafia style authority. What Harry and we did not predict though was a further confirmation of the presumption that all lawyers in Indonesia are at best negotiators, at worst conspirators with the corrupt law enforcement officials. Also that the corruption complaint had caused telephones to ring, although we suspect nothing else. You see, Harry’s lawyer, R. Azhari as well as telling him the grim news about his wife, informed Harry that the police said the criminal libel thing was all a mistake, plus he had to return 4 million Rupiah to Sang’s family from chief prosecutor I Bagus Wiswantanu himself. It appears this money was paid to Mr. Wiswantanu by Sang’s family as a “guarantee” that Sang would not be jailed in March 2005, but as Sang was jailed, Wiswantanu was returning it; such honesty and incriminating evidence that Bali’s top prosecutor, the man who prosecuted Schapelle Corby, is as bent as they come.

What makes it worse is the prosecution are appealing Sang’s sentence on the basis it is too lenient. We believe this is a standard modus operandi for prosecutors and their colluding judges to feign false division and independence, an act that implies they are not colluding to cover the fact they are. We also believe this is done as a warning to the family to shut up and lie down, otherwise Sang will go to jail for longer. Bali, you disgust us. These police officers, prosecutors and judges involved in this nasty and corrupt case are Balinese too. We name them here for public record;

Officer Tri Kuncoro – Chief of Bali’s so called Cyber crime division (the same man who colluded with Jack Daniels of PT Bali Discovery Tours to then act unlawfully against their competitor – see our report: Bali Discovery Tours). Harry reports Tri Kuncoro asked him for 100,000,000 Rupiah (US$10,000) to close the case.

Cyber crime police officers; Idodo Simangunsong, Iptu Ahmad Jaelani, Zulfikar.

Bali’s Chief Prosecutor; I Bagus Wiswantanu. The recorded 4 million Rupiah returned “guarantee” fee to Sang’s family surely is proof the island’s senior prosecutor takes extortion / corruption money. You may recall our previous article on Schapelle Corby which detailed the fact a highly respected Australian QC reports he was asked for $500,000 by Ms. Corby’s Indonesian defense team to bribe the judiciary (prosecutors and judges) into letting her go.

Process Prosecutor; Wayan Wuwila

Court Prosecutor; Suhadi – Harry reports this man terrorized his wife Sang with telephone call notifications of summons (unlawful) which did not actually exist and coincidentally only became involved the very same day the Indonesian Corruption Commission said the police officers involved in this case should be investigated, hmmmmmm.

High Court Chief Judge; I Gusti Made Lingga – Because of the prosecution’s clearly contrived, insulting and ludicrous appeal against the “leniency” [sic] of Sang’s sentence, this shows that the highest judge on Bali is almost certainly complicit in the collusion and corruption.

Presiding Judge; Nyoman Karma – Clearly the most complicit of all the judges. Despite the fact Sang Ayu’s family legally authorized the bail bond to have Sang released, she never was. Harry reports Judge Karma then demanded 100,000,000 on top (the same amount as officer Tri Kuncoro, hmmmm), but without a receipt or mention of this in the court!

Lawyer Erwin Siregar – Harry’s original (first) lawyer – Harry reports that Erwin wanted to negotiate a cash settlement with officer Tri Kuncoro saying "This is only monkey business, but you need pay and you will have new friends." But when Harry replied to Siregar for him to “stop talking money but rather talk about the law with the police”, Mr. Siregar reportedly said “You know Harry, I am the wrong lawyer for that." At that point, Harry got himself another lawyer. Harry said Mr. Siregar did call him several times after to try and change his mind with such concerned statements such as “"Harry, think about what they could do to your family if you fight them."; lovely!

Lawyer Lily Lubis – that old chestnut again – She came to Harry and offered her services for free and then it seems very clear she tried to become a part of an extortion attempt with the prosecutors. Harry did not realize Lily Lubis was actually working with Erwin Siregar in the Schapelle Corby trial, and presumably colluding with Mr. Siregar and the police over Harry. Instead of going into all the detail here, we have done a special report about her: Bali Lawyers & Law Firms.

Of course there were others involved, 2 judges which Harry never could find the names of. Plus of course police officers such as Bali’s main honcho himself, Police Chief Made Pastika, for sitting by, obviously knowing what was going on, allowing this travesty of justice which insults everything except the corrupt law enforcement officials’ untenable egos and hungry wallets. People used to speak of Made Pastika’s anti-corruption mandate, but there is no evidence at all to show he does anything other than take his own cut of the extortion money collected by his subordinates. We say let there be a full independent and public audit of Made Pastika’s assets.

These people in uniforms, cloaks and wigs, plus the civilians that support and even collude with them, all with their pious attitudes and nasty ways are surely the number one public enemies of Bali and Indonesia. For the foreign tourist and / or investor, it is clear evidence of the need to boycott Bali and Indonesia until these people are brought to justice. After all, with such evidence against Bali’s chief police officer, chief prosecutor and chief judge, how can anyone feel safe in the hands of the law in Bali?

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