Indosat IM2 to Appeal Court Ruling

By Azi Fitriyanti Jakarta (Antara) - PT Indosat Tbk. has expressed readiness to appeal the court's ruling on PT Indosat Mega Media (IM2) in a corruption case over 3G cooperation that has caused the state to suffer a loss. In a court session on Monday (July 8, 2013) judges sentenced former IM2 president director Indar Atmanto to four years in jail and also fined him Rp200 million or a three months more in jail for failing to pay it. PT Indosat's Group Head of Regulatory Risargati said at a press conference here on Tuesday PT Indosat-IM2 has a week to appeal the ruling. "We will fight until the end and use every legal avenue to make the ruling revoked," said Risargati. According to Risargati, judges did not mention any actions relating to corruption charges made by the prosecutors from the first day of the trial in December 2012. "The judges also ignored experts' testimonies and evidences that showed nothing wrong in the contract between Indosat and IM2," she said. If the contract was wrong Risargati said the Communications and Information Ministry as a network regulator in Indonesia would issue a statement about it. "But during the trials, we have been given evidence showing that the contract between Indosat and IM2 has legally and administratively been approved," she said. On the other hand, the Chairman of Mastel, Setyanto P Santosa said the verdict was not fair because judges ignored some facts. "We support Indosat as a member of Mastel and Indar Atmanto as our ICT's colleague because they are innocent," said Setyanto. Regarding the unfairness on the verdict, Setyanto said Mastel is considering to complaint to the Judicial Commission with regard to the judges' actions. "We thought judges had ignored facts and experts' testimonies," he said. The court's verdict on IM2 and Indar Atmanto was given based on charges of misusing of 3G/High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) owned by PT Indosat Tbk as the main company and IM2 as its subsidiary through a cooperation contract. The Mastel's press conference was also attended by the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Agency, the Indonesian Open Source Association and the Bandung Institute of Technology's Alumni Association. (*)