Richard Ness: Watching My Dads Trial

Richard Ness : Blog : Prosecutors Try to Drown a Fish and Dupe a Nation

Prosecutors Try to Drown a Fish and Dupe a Nation - 20 Mar 2007
by Eric

Read this blog in Bahasa

Well, it’s getting close to the end. My Dad finished presenting his final arguments on March 14th, and the Judges have said that they will render their verdict on Wednesday, April 4th.

First, my family and I really want to thank everyone who has been part of my Dad’s defense: Luhut M.P Pangaribuan, Hafzan Tahir, Palmer S., Olga, H.J.J Mangindaan, Mochamad Kasmali, Nira S Nazarruddin for their outstanding work and legal counsel. David Sompie, Putra Widjayatri, Phil Turner, Bill Long and Jerry Konjansow for their unwavering support. Ali Sahami, Shakeb Afsah, Pretty Mamonto, Mark Wielga, Todung Mulia Lubis and Arief T. Surowidjojo for their wise technical guidance. We would also like to thank Wayne Murdy, Blake Rhodes and every single Newmont employee who has worked directly on this case, or supported and wished us well throughout this ordeal. And I am obviously missing a number of people who should be named here but, rest assured my family and I are deeply indebted to all of you.

The Essence of this Trial

Before I elaborate on some of the finer details of the events transpiring in the final round of arguments, there are about three things that really summarize how I feel about this case. First, the Prosecution has intensified misquoting witnesses and fabricating lies. Second, they’ve gone back to their old tactic of applying the wrong standards to data (surface water standards to sea water) and are again trying to mislead the court. Third, they are still relying on the testimony of Mr. Muladi, a witness who never returned to court to complete his hearing. The persistence of the Prosecutors to use inappropriate information and come down to repeatedly using lies is indeed a noticeable action.

So when you read in the Associated Press that, “Indonesian prosecutors are confident a court will find a local subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corp. and a top executive guilty of polluting a bay with toxic chemicals when judges announce their verdict next month, a prosecutor said Saturday” it makes you wonder where this confidence comes from.

Are these lofty claims by the Prosecutor based on the Police data that consisted of those mysterious ten samples which were never collected from Buyat? Or this confidence comes from the hazard index calculation by Masnelliyarti Hilman in the Nov-04 Integrated Team’s report that were decisively discredited by the WHO and CSIRO research? Is the Prosecutor getting his confidence from the belief that he can successfully dupe everyone? Or is it something else?

It is clear that Mr. Purwanta’s confidence is unsupportable by facts and evidence. His proclamation is nothing but a continuation of the same arrogance that defied the Judge’s order to resample the water of Buyat Bay in July-2006. But Mr. Purwanta should not forget that a Deputy from the Ministry of Environment publicly said that the Prosecution’s case is weak. Even the ardent believers from KLH have reversed their opinion. Only time will tell if Mr. Purwanta indulges in hyperboles or is a successful psychic. But in the meantime it may not be a bad idea for Mr. Purwanta to maintain some rhetorical austerity.

The Trial, the Replik and the Duplic

My Dad had the final opportunity to present his defense to the court on the March 14th in a document called the Duplic. The Duplic is essentially a rejoinder to a document called the Replik, which the Prosecutors submitted to the court in January 2007 in response to the three Pledois submitted by my Dad and his defense team. Basically, this 18-month-long grueling legal process has progressed as follows:

Pre-trial -> Hearings -> Charges -> Pledois -> Replik -> Duplic -> VERDICT
In this blog, I also want to focus on the Prosecutions’ Replik and my dad’s Duplic – and in doing so, call attention to the numerous inaccuracies and illustrate just how unbelievable this case has been.

Actually the Replik can be very well summarized by quoting what my Dad read out to the court on March 14th.

“The Replik was supposed to be a reply to the three Pledois submitted by the Defense but it turned out to be a replica of the same old factual errors, the same old use of discredited police samples and a reiteration of the wrong science of the Integrated Team’s report. This Replik is no more than a contrived empty formality lacking the substance and spirit to uphold law and justice.”

With the Replik, the Prosecution has also taken pseudo-science to an entirely new level. In it, the Prosecutor has attempted to explain the depth of the thermocline in Buyat Bay by drawing some sort of inane similarity to the black box of the crashed Adam Air’s flight. When this reference to Adam Air’s black box was first read out by the Prosecution it raised everyone’s eyebrows in disbelief.

First, it was during the hearings that the Prosecutors tried to extrapolate from a 1970 research on Molucca Sea to calculate the depth of the thermocline in Buyat. And now the Prosecution is trying to extrapolate from an altitude of 35,000 ft over Molucca Sea to the depth of the thermocline in Buyat. The Prosecution’s understanding of science has clearly reached a new height – (or low)!!! If this kind of extrapolation can get my Dad in jail, then anything can be extrapolated to anything. By invoking a comparison with Adam Air, the Prosecutor has confirmed that they are also trying to whitewash the truth.

For this reason, in his conclusions my Dad has not only asked to clear his name but has also requested the court to investigate and prosecute those individuals who have perpetrated the campaign of misinformation and lies. His words were as follows:

“I respectfully re-submit my request to the Panel of Judges to render a verdict to:

A. Clear my name of all the charges brought against me by the Public Prosecution team; or at least
B. Include in the court’s ruling a request to investigate, and if sufficient evidence is established, to prosecute those suspected of misleading the public and breaching the public’s trust in perpetrating false allegations relating to the environmental and health conditions surrounding Buyat Bay. Those individuals include but are not limited to:

1. Rignolda Djamaludin, Jane Pangemanan and Raja Siregar for the perpetration of the Buyat Hoax.
2. Those members of the Ministry of Environment’s Technical Team, (especially including Ibu Masnellyarti Hillman), who willfully and knowingly manipulated data and referenced non-existing regulations to deceive the public by creating the illusion that a village needed to be relocated because of pollution when in fact no pollution existed.“

So all of this begs a very serious question: What does it say to foreign investors about the Indonesian investment climate when you have prosecutors fabricating testimonies, half quoting laws and just making a mockery of the legal system? Investors know that this is not a trial about pollution (the facts are overwhelmingly against it). My Dad addressed this issue very pointedly during his interview with ABC Late Line Business where he said, “you need rule of law, you need sanctity of contracts, and you need protection of human rights - that's a prerequisite for doing business in any country”. [watch video]

In the Duplic my Dad says that “it is not the environmental conditions of Buyat Bay that is on trial, but it is the integrity of Indonesia’s justice system that is on trial. It is the dreams of the forefathers of Indonesia that is on trial. And it is the public trust in scientific facts that is on trial.”

We are anxiously waiting for the 4th of April, 2007. This verdict will confirm whether or not truth has a standing in Indonesia.

The opinions posted here are that of myself, my brothers, and other contributors and not that of my father nor the company he works for.