The trial of the alleged corruption case involving the sale of aluminum alloy by PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) at the Medan District Court has revealed crucial loopholes in the prosecutor's indictment. The legal defense team for defendant Djoko Sutrisno, President Director of PT Prima Alloy Steel Universal (PT PASU) Tbk, stated that expert testimonies during the trial proved there are fundamental weaknesses in the legal construction of the case.
Willyam Raja D. Halawa, acting as legal counsel for PT PASU, explained that the testimonies of the criminal law and audit experts presented at the trial questioned two main points of the indictment. These points include the alleged forced application of criminal law to a business dispute and the methodology for calculating state losses, which is deemed not credible.
During the trial, Mahmud Mulyadi, a criminal law expert from the University of North Sumatra, explained that cooperative relationships, debts, and business disputes cannot automatically be categorized as criminal acts of corruption. Mahmud emphasized the importance of applying the principle of ultimum remedium, where criminal law should be a last resort after administrative or civil legal avenues have been pursued.
On the other hand, audit expert Sudirman strongly criticized the validity of the state financial loss calculation presented by the prosecutor. Sudirman revealed that the audit process ignored auditing standards because it failed to perform direct confirmation and clarification with the relevant parties, relying instead solely on the investigation report (BAP) documents.
Furthermore, the audit expert also emphasized that potential losses suffered by a corporation do not automatically reflect state financial losses. The defense team hopes that the panel of judges can assess all facts of this trial objectively to produce a fair decision free from one-sided assumptions.
