On Nov. 5, 2020, the Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) officially announced that it was investigating Montreal-based Bombardier Inc over suspected bribery and corruption in relation to contracts and/or orders from PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. The investigation is related to the case of corruption that brought down Garuda’s former president director Emirsyah Satar and the notorious Soetikno Soedarjo.

In Oct. 2020, the Jakarta Metropolitan Police announced that it had named Benny Simon Tabalujan a suspect of fraud. Soon, Benny was dubbed as a land mafia and the Land Agency has been under scrutiny since. The case, however, did not receive much attention until Benny asked for legal assistance from one Haris Azhar, a human rights defender who often voiced his dislike of oligarchs since the Omnibus Bill was passed into Law. While all attention was on Haris, we wondered what exactly was going on that there had to be a commotion like this. As it turns out, the problem is the existence of three conflicting decisions from two different courts.

A week after the House of Representatives passed the Omnibus Bill on Job Creation into Law, two Judicial Review applications were submitted to the Constitutional Court. By the end of the same month, there were already four applications against the Omnibus Bill. After the Bill was promulgated as Law No. 11/2020, one more application was submitted by the workers confederation KSPI. We expect to see more Judicial Review applications submitted against the Law.   

The Indonesian Government continues to focus on economic recovery following the impact of COVID-19. The most recent policy issued is the Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 103/2020, which provides guarantees for the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program. 

Trial of the former Secretary of the Supreme Court Nurhadi and his son-in-law one Rezky Herbiyono continues. During the hearing held on Nov. 4, 2020, the prosecutors summoned three witnesses, one of whom is Rezky’s former employee who plays an important part in the scheme. 

Trial of Andi Irfan Jaya, a former cadre of NasDem, who was named suspect for being involved in the attempt to help Joko Tjandra, started on Nov. 4, 2020. Unlike the trials of the other defendants, this trial is far from media coverage. Separately, the verdict for the last defendant in the case of corruption in Bandung Municipality’s procurement of land for the Green Open Space (RTH) was read after it was delayed for a week. 

The public is getting familiar with PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II (Persero) since 2015 thanks to the antics of the then President Director RJ Lino. After that, both the POLRI and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigated the Company. The KPK named Lino a suspect of corruption in the same year. But there has been no progress to date. 

The press widely reported on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)’s investigation of corruption in PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Persero) (PTDI). The KPK held back on sharing information until June 2020 when it announced that it had escalated the investigation status to the stage of inquisition and named two suspects. The trial of the two suspects started this week. Around the same time, the KPK named more suspects in the case. The case has ensnared six individuals, four of whom were executives of the Company.

Besides Joko Tjandra, two police generals and an intermediary of the bribery case also faced their trials on the same day. The two police generals are indicted for receiving approximately Rp9 billion in exchange for helping to erase Joko’s name from the fugitive list. The intermediary is one Tommy Sumardi, Joko’s friend, and also in-law of Malaysia’s ousted Prime Minister Najib Razak. Napoleon is indicted for accepting bribes of SG$200,000 and US$270,000 or equivalent to Rp6.1 billion, while Prasetijo Utomo is indicted for receiving US$150,000 or equivalent to Rp2.2 billion.

The legendary PT Perindustrian Njonja Meneer (Nyonya Meneer) was declared bankrupt over three years ago but the dispute related to the trademarks legacy continues. Charles Saerang and PT Bhumi Empon Mustiko (PT BEM) are still fighting over the use of the trademarks. Recently, the Court decided in favor of the PT BEM. Charles Saerang refuses to surrender.