Lawyers Group Urges Revival of Lapindo Case
Friday, 19 February, 2010 | 03:15 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Termination of the legal proceedings into the environmental crime case of Lapindo mud flood is about to face a legal challenge, as tension between Aburizal Bakrie, the owner of the business, and President Yudhoyono’s administration in Bank Century bail out scandal grew.

Seven days after a political analyst projected the move and six days after a group of foreign geologists analyzing Lapindo mud flood reinstated that the mud flood was caused by Lapindo’s mining operations, a group of lawyer in East Java have filed for court review over the cessation of Lapindo case in 2009.

Head of the East Java chapter of Indonesia Advocates Association Sunaryo Edy Wibowo said on Thursday (18/2) “Lapindo case should be reopened,” while filing for court review with the Sidoarjo District Court.

Lawyers said the cessation was illegal as police was not authorized to make the decision without recommendation from the Attorney General’s Office. The group also said police made the decision without enough evidence.

The cessation was announced in August 2009.

Late in 2007 the Lapindo won legal battle over the mining accident filed by the Indonesia Friends of the Earth and nearly forced the government and the parliament to officially declare the accident as a natural disaster.

The accident, as international geologists put it, had cost victims of the mud billions of rupiahs in assets as mud continue to swarm Sidoarjo and has covered, as of late 2009, an area of about 10 square kilometers.

President Yudhoyono’s first term administration have remained silent in the outcry but prepared to use the unsettled problem to defend its second term.

EKO WIDIANTO