Minister Susi, Yusril Engage in Twitter War over Legal Warning

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), Susi Pudjiastuti and lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra engaged in a twitter war on a legal warning sent by Yusril to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. “The Thai-owned tramper case will be settled in the court, not on Twitter forum,” said the owner of @susipudjiastuti account, Wednesday, February 3, 2016.

The @susipudjiastuti account wrote that Minister Susi has released the case of Silver Sea II Motor Boat capture before Yusril’s appointment as lawyer by the boat’s skipper, Yotin Kuarabiab. He quipped that Yusril is a man that understands the law but argued about it on Twitter.

“Moreover, it’s about Thai-owned tramper, cought by Sabang Navy as it carried 2,000 tons of fish,” said Susi on Twitter. She even used an emoticon to quip Yusril. She also thinks that Yusril has confused Silver Sea II Motor Boat case with Susiair’s illegal avtur case. “Susi=lobster in simeleu illegal fishing=Avtur Susiair illegal = pretentious= ??? waiting for new accusations.”

Yusril is currently asked to be Silver Sea II Motor Boat lawyer. He tweeted via @yusrilihza_mhd on Silver Sea II Motor Boat case and the legal warning sent to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. The boat, according to Yusril, is a cargo ship that carried fishes to Papua Nugini. He bases his tweet on the completeness of cargo manifest submitted to the Ministry’s officers.

A tweet from @yusrilihza_mhd’s said that the boat has never entered Indonesian sea territory. According to him, the Thai-flagged boat was cruising from PNG through Arafura sea of Australian part and crossing the Economic Exclusive Zone of southern East Timor, Nusa Tenggara, Bali, southern Java, to Sumatra.

“The boat was cought at ZEE territory near Sabang when trying to cross towards Phuket, Thailand,” Yusril said. The boat being cought was not a fishing boat. “Yet the boat was pursued by Indonesian Navy because the radio dispatch failed to answer radio call from the Indonesian Navy’s patrol boat.”

According to him, the KKP had investigated it since August 2015 and the dossier had been submitted to the prosecutor general. The prosecutor general, however, had returned the dossier due to lack of evidence.

“The KKP musn’t make any statement accusing the boat to have stolen something if it could not be proven in court,” said Yusril. He has long urged the KKP to submit the case dossier to the court. Yusril has eventually sent a legal warning to the KPP regarding the sluggish investigation by the KPP.

AVIT HIDAYAT