Towards the end of last week, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced that they had named two new suspects in the case corruption in the regency of Bengkalis. One of the new suspects is the Regent of Bengkalis one Amril Mukminin (Golkar). Thus, the Regency has had to deal with cases of corruption twice in a row. The previous regent was ensnared in a case of corruption investigated by the regional police.

On May 16, 2019, the Central Jakarta District Court registered a tort lawsuit filed by Saudi Arabia-based Tire Technology Est. The lawsuit was filed against PT Multistrada Arah Sarana Tbk (MASA) and its President Director Pieter Tanuri. What makes the lawsuit interesting is that a similar lawsuit from the same Company was filed back in 2015 to a different district court and supposedly had a legally binding verdict.

The Corruption Court of the Central Jakarta District Court continues the trial of the defendants in the case of bribery that ensnared two judges of the South Jakarta District Court. The case had revealed a lot of things including that one of the defendants used the help several people to do the crime, including from his wife. The wife in question, sadly, is a prosecutor.

In January 2019, news broke that the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the Ministry of Finance with the granting of the Reconsideration petition that the Ministry filed against the cassation verdict on water privatization in Jakarta. The decision was actually read on November 2018. Since then, we have not heard much of the dispute until recently when the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) sent a letter to the Jakarta Provincial Government and warned the government of possible corruption.

Several days ago the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and Transparency International Indonesia (TII) held a press conference and mentioned that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) still had to resolve dozens of cases of corruption and time was running out. We all know that there are limits and expiry dates even on the investigation process and the process of investigation of some of the biggest cases of corruption have been going on for years without any visible result. Thanks to the press conference and announcement, the KPK finally spoke up on the current state of some of the mentioned cases.

Back in mid-2018 we reported the development of the ongoing dispute regarding shares ownership between PT Aryaputra Teguhartha, a company with links to PT Ongko Multicorpora (PT Mitra Investindo Multicorpora) and Kaharudin Ongko (Bank Umum Nasional and former defendant in the BLBI graft case), and PT Bunas Finance Indonesia Tbk (now PT BFI Finance Tbk) (BFIN). There are three lawsuits filed by Aryaputra as of then including a police report also filed by the Company. The prolonged dispute, as we all know, was brought to life in May 2018 when Aryaputra conducted various legal efforts. The Jakarta State Administrative High Court (PTTUN) had decided in favor of BFIN in response to the resistance filed by the Company, contrary to the verdict previously decided by the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) which sided with Aryaputra. Recently, BFIN announced that Aryaputra decided to file for a cassation. But we also just learned that there is actually one other case investigated by the police even before Aryaputra filed the lawsuit to the PTUN. In the case, the police apparently had named one Irsanto Ongko as suspect since 2015. Irsanto filed a pre-trial lawsuit to question the determination and his petition was granted in the second day of April 2019. Now Irsanto demanded the police to obey the court verdict.

We reported that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) faced a new pre-trial lawsuit filed by the conglomerate Surya Darmadi, the owner of Duta Palma Group, several days before the KPK officially named him a suspect last week. This week, the pre-trial examination had started and as expected, the KPK denied every allegations Surya put forward in his petition.

By the end of 2018, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) makes a move in Central Java and raided the office of the Regent of Jepara one Ahmad Marzuqi. Although it was not a sting operation, the KPK still announced that they have conducted an inquisition and named two suspects in the case of alleged bribery, including Marzuqi. On May 13, 2019, after several examination sessions, the KPK finally detained Marzuqi. Separately, the KPK continue investigating the case of corruption in Tulungagung which had ensnared the disgraced Regent one Syahri Mulyo. On May 13, 2019, the KPK announced that they had named a new suspect in the case.

In October last year, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) conducted a sting operation in Pasuruan, East Java, and arrested several people including the then Mayor of Pasuruan one Setiyono. KPK named four suspects in the case of alleged bribery. The trials of the defendants started not long after and did not gain much attention because the Corruption Court examined the case at the Surabaya District Court. Three defendants had been convicted entering 2019, and on May 13, 2019, the court read the verdict for Setiyono, the last defendant in the case. The Panel of Judges found Setiyono guilty of the charges.