In September 2018, we reported that the employees of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had filed a lawsuit against their leaders. The lawsuit was filed after the employees held a protest in August 2018. Two days after the lawsuit was filed, another similar lawsuit was filed. The Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN Jakarta) has rejected a second lawsuit following an out-of-court settlement process, but the first lawsuit continues to be examined. The leaders of KPK won at first, but recently nearly two years after the lawsuit was filed, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the employees. 

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry recently announced that it was investigating a case of illegal logging in Maluku. At the beginning of this year, an agrarian dispute between CV Sumber Berkat Makmur (SBM), a plantation company operating in the Eastern District of Seram regency (Seram Bagian Timur); and the inhabitants around the Company’s operating location (Sabuai village residents) heated up. The indigenous people of Sabuai protested the Company’s activities that they believed were damaging the environment and traditional sites, such as ancestral graves.

On October 9, 2019, we reported that the Commercial Court of the Central Jakarta District Court held hearings on the two lawsuits filed by PT Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI). The lawsuits were filed against several broadcasting companies that RCTI accused of violating their copyrights. In the two lawsuits, RCTI demands compensation of close to Rp9 trillion. RCTI failed to get what they wanted, but before RCTI filed the lawsuit, one of the cases had been investigated by the Government. The Government, through Directorate of Investigation and Settlement of Disputes, Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI) at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, apparently had been working on the case since late 2018 and the West Jakarta District Court examines the case. Recently we learned that the court had decided in favor of DJKI.

The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) recently decided to loosen business competition law enforcement amid the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. According to the KPPU, this decision is needed in an emergency as it is now. Leniency is given related to several issues, including reporting obligations of corporate actions (mergers and acquisitions).

For the past two weeks, many have questioned the continuity of the trial in the judiciary under the Supreme Court. Until recently, trials throughout Indonesia were still carried out with a number of precautionary rules. But with the widespread outbreak, the Supreme...

On August 15, 2019, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced that they had named five suspects in the case involving the Commissioner of PT Wahana Auto Ekamarga one Darwin Maspolim. Graft case in taxation is not a new thing, unfortunately, but what the...

Major floods hit Jakarta and parts of West Java on the first day of 2020. Although other areas in West Java were affected, public attention was centered on Jakarta, particularly on the channelization of the Ciliwung River, which has been delayed for several years. Blame was also assigned to the Governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan for failing to conduct all measures necessary to prepare Jakarta’s water management infrastructure. Lawyers have decided to help flood victims by advocating a class action several weeks later. The trial started in the first week of February 2020. Recently the Court declared that the lawsuit had met the requirements to be examined as a class action lawsuit. Therefore the trial continues. Apart from this lawsuit, the same Court is examining one similar class-action lawsuit.

Eight months ago, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) uncovered a scheme involving prosecutors of the Jakarta High Prosecutor Office. The KPK named several suspects, including an official of the High Prosecutors Office. After several months of trial, on Feb. 24, 2020, the Panel of Judges of the Corruption Court of the Central Jakarta District Court read their verdict for the bribee in the case.  But this case is only an entrance to another case that happened in Central Jakarta. The briber in the primary case committed the same crime and bribed several prosecutors in the region. Far from media coverage, recently, the Corruption Court of the Semarang District Court listened to the Prosecutors demands for the defendants. 

The KPK named 11 suspects in the Meikarta Township graft case. Nine of them have been convicted with the tenth suspect indicted since Jan. 2020. On March 18, 2020 the Corruption Court of the Bandung District Court read their verdict for the tenth suspect, i.e., former Regional Secretary of West Java Iwa Karniwa. Meanwhile, on the same day the Corruption Court of the Central Jakarta District Court listened to the prosecutors’ demands for the disgraced Governor of Riau Islands Nurdin Basirun, who is standing trial for allegedly receiving bribery and grafts.