MAKI to File Pretrial Motion against Trade Ministry over Cooking Oil Mafia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Community (MAKI) planned to file a pretrial lawsuit against Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi and the Trade Ministry’s Director-General of Consumer Protection and Trade Order for not revealing the cooking oil mafia.

“This lawsuit is a reaction to the Trade Minister's broken promise about revealing suspects of cooking oil mafia,” said MAKI Coordinator Boyamin Saiman in a written statement, Tuesday, March 29.

MAKI is set to file the lawsuit to the Central Jakarta District Court on Wednesday, March 30.

Boyamin argued that there were a consumer protection crime and a trade crime behind the shortage and high price of cooking oil. The scarcity is also allegedly caused by the mafia.

According to Boyamin, Trade Minister claimed he had pocketed the names of potential suspects for hoarding cooking oil and planned to announce the names on March 21. The ministry had even acknowledged the modus operandi carried out by the alleged perpetrators.

“This action allegedly violates Articles 106 and 107 of the Trade Law concerning hoarders,” said Boyamin.

Investigators from the Trade Ministry also claimed to have found two pieces of evidence that were sufficient to identify the suspect.

However, Trade Minister Lutfi has not yet disclosed the names of the suspects to date. On this basis, MAKI considered the Trade Ministry to have terminated an investigation illegally and violated the law.

Read: KPPU Finds Evidence of Alleged Cooking Oil Cartel Practices

M ROSSENO AJI