JAKARTA — Prosecutors in Indonesia have charged four judges and two lawyers accused of bribery in a recently concluded trial involving palm oil giants Permata Hijau, Wilmar and Musim Mas. The Attorney General’s Office made a late-night announcement on April 13 that it had charged Jakarta-based judges Muhammad Arif Nuryanta, Agam Syarif Baharuddin, Ali Muhtarom and Djuyamto with bribery, along with court clerk Wahyu Gunawan. It also announce charges against lawyers Ariyanto Bakri and Marcella Santoso, who were taken into custody the day before. The AGO alleges that the lawyers worked as intermediaries for the three palm oil companies, channeling up to 60 billion rupiah ($3.57 million) to the judges for a favorable ruling. The companies had been on trial for alleged corruption after exporting more crude palm oil (CPO) than they were permitted to in 2022, amid a major shortage of cooking oil across the country at the time. A trade ministry official, a prominent economist, and three palm oil executives were convicted and jailed in early 2023 for their role in the export scandal. But in the subsequent trial against the companies, judges Agam, Ali and Djuyamto ruled on March 19 this year that while the companies were liable to the charges of trade violations brought by prosecutors, their actions did not warrant prosecution. This unusual type of ruling, a holdover from the Dutch colonial period known as ontslag van alle recht vervolging (discharge without prosecution), was based on the reasoning that the exports complied with trade policies in force…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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