East Kutai may file criminal charges against Churchill
Jakarta Post, Indonesia
East Kutai may file criminal charges against Churchill
By Raras Cahyafitri, The Jakarta Post
5 March 2014
The local administration in East Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, has threatened to file criminal charges against British company Churchill Mining Plc for allegedly forging its mining permits to operate mine areas in the regency.
The threat was made just a few days after the Washington-based International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) rejected the Indonesian government’s jurisdictional challenge against the arbitration body.
East Kutai Regent Isran Noor, who has said that he plans to run for president this year, said on Tuesday that he had prepared a letter of authority to file criminal charges against Churchill with the East Kutai Police over the alleged
permit forging.
“The basis of the report is an audit result by the BPK [Supreme Audit Agency], which found that my signature on the mining permits had been forged,” Isran said.
With the ICSID’s ruling last week, Churchill can pursue its claims — worth US$1.05 billion — for damages caused by the revocation of its mining permits by the Indonesian government.
In 2012, Churchill decided to file for arbitration to the ICSID following the revocation of its mining permits in coal mining areas in East Kutai two years earlier. The London-listed company launched operations in Indonesia in 2008 after acquiring a 75 percent stake in its local partner, the Ridlatama Group, which held permits to mine 35,000 hectares of land previously owned by six local firms under the Nusantara Group, partly owned by presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
In 2010, the East Kutai administration revoked the Churchill-Ridlatama permits for conducting illegal logging in a conservation forest and for allegedly forging its mining licenses.
The forgery allegations were discussed at an ICSID hearing last year.
According to Churchill’s defense, which was cited during last week’s ICSID jurisdiction ruling, the London company rejected Indonesia’s allegations of forged mining permits.
“The respondent’s [Indonesia] accusations of document forgery are not supported by evidence. The claimant strongly rejects the respondent’s accusation raised during the hearing regarding allegedly forged documents in the record. It explains that some document irregularities may be due to clerical errors made by officials in the regency of East Kutai. Notwithstanding, the fact that the respondent has not acted on these accusations much earlier is sufficient to rebut them,” the report said.
Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said last week that the government had prepared evidence and documents to support oral pleadings in the next ICSID hearing, the date of which has not yet been set.
