BATAM, KOMPAS – The dismissal of Niwen Khairiah, who was convicted of laundering Rp 1.3 trillion, from her civil service job with the Batam city administration, Riau Islands, will be time-consuming. Furthermore, her whereabouts are now unknown.
The delay has been caused by the administration not receiving a proposal letter for Niwen’s dismissal, according to Batam regional secretary Jefridin. “Such letters will certainly go through me. At least I would sign them first before forwarding them to the mayor. Even if it has been proposed, the process would take a long time,” he said on Wednesday (1/2) in Batam.
The proposal for the dismissal of every civil servant is sent by the Regional Employment Agency (BKD) to the head of the region. Before it is received by the head of the region, the proposal must be checked by the regional secretary. In Niwen’s case, Batam BKD head M. Sahir said that he had recently sent a dismissal proposal to the Batam mayor, but he did not reveal exactly when.
He said that there has not been any response from the Batam mayor. Sahir also said that Niwen’s status is now as a non-active civil servant and that she has not gone to work for a long time. Therefore, Sahir said he does not know where Niwen is at the moment.
As reported, Niwen was sentenced to 10 years in prison after she was found guilty of involvement in the laundering of about Rp 1.3 trillion that came from illegal oil transactions. The ruling at the final appeal of her case was issued on Feb. 17, 2016. However, up to now, the former head of foreign cooperation at the Batam Investment Board has neither been dismissed nor sanctioned.
The head of the Batam prosecutors’ office, M. Mikroj, stressed that the executor of the Niwen case is the Pekanbaru prosecutors’ office in Riau.
“Feel free to seek confirmation from Riau,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the Pekanbaru prosecutors’ office’s special crime division, Darma Natal, has not responded to confirmation requests. He has read the questions sent through the WhatsApp service but did not reply. He also has not responded to calls made to his cell phone.
Frequent excuses
Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said that the matter of Niwen Khairiah is within the authority of prosecutors. After the Supreme Court issues a verdict, the prosecutors have the power to follow it up by carrying out the order of the verdict.
“If the excerpt of the verdict has been received by the court, the verdict can be carried out. Prosecutors do not have to wait until the transcript of the verdict is given to the court or the disputing parties,” Suhadi said on Wednesday in Jakarta.
However, Suhadi said, often the prosecutors would give the excuse of waiting for the verdict transcript to be given to the court and the disputing parties. To address this matter, the Supreme Court already has a supervisory judge in every district court who monitors the implementation of the court’s verdict by the prosecutors.
“When prosecutors have executed a verdict, they would report it to the supervisory judge at the court. The supervisory judge can make impromptu visits to check whether a court verdict has been carried out,” Suhadi said.
Regarding the Niwen case, Suhadi has promised to first check on the execution of the Supreme Court verdict through the supervisory judge. However, Suhadi said, fundamentally the authority to carry out verdicts is in the hands of the prosecutors.
According to the Riau prosecutors’ office special crime division assistant, Sugeng Rianta, his organization is currently supervising and examining the fact that the verdict over Niwen has still to be executed.
“Regarding the question of what is obstructing implementation or why the convict has not been incarcerated, we have just carried out supervision and examination of the matter to identify the problem. The head of the Riau prosecutors’ office has also tasked a team from his office to help the city prosecutors’ office quickly execute the verdict,” Sugeng said when contacted from Jakarta.
The Supreme Court, he said, issued the verdict on the case in February 2016. The transcript of the verdict was officially submitted by the court bailiff to the prosecutors on Aug. 1, 2016. Two weeks later, on Aug. 15, 2016, an execution order letter was issued to the prosecutors to immediately execute the Supreme Court verdict on Niwen who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined Rp 6.6 billion.
Niwen’s case has been handed over by the National Police Crime Investigation Agency to the Pekanbaru prosecutors’ office. Niwen, along with Ahmad Mahbub, Aguan alias Danun, Ahmad Arifin and Yusri had been tried at the Pekanbaru Anti-Corruption Court. The location of the trial was in accordance to the original location of the oil stolen by syndicate leader Ahmad Mahbub, the elder brother of Niwen.
Supreme Court secretary candidate
The panel of judges at the Pekanbaru Anti-Corruption Court was presided over by Ahmad Pudjoharsoyo, who is now a candidate for the position of Supreme Court secretary. In June 2015, Ahmad Pudjo and his colleagues acquitted Niwen, Yusri and Ahmad Arifin of all charges when the prosecutors demanded a 16-year imprisonment and a fine of Rp 67 billion or an additional eight years in prison. Mahbub and Aguan, meanwhile, received a sentence of four years imprisonment and a fine of Rp 200 million or an additional sentence of six months in prison.
Because Niwen was acquitted of all charges, the prosecutors filed appeals. In the final appeal, Niwen was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined Rp 6.6 billion or an additional sentence of five years in prison. Meanwhile, Yusri was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentences for Aguan and Mahbub were increased from four years to 17 years. Both of them must pay fines of Rp 72.4 billion.
(RAZ/REK/IAN)