Rear Admiral (Retd) Leonardi, former head of the Defence Ministry's Defence Facilities Agency, contends that prosecutors' charges in the alleged corruption case concerning the procurement of a satellite in orbital slot 123 for the 2015-2021 period contain legal flaws and do not match the indictment. Leonardi made this statement during the trial's closing arguments at the High Military Court II in Jakarta on Friday (10 April).
In his defence memorandum, Leonardi rejected all charges against him and expressed surprise that only he had been named as a suspect from the government side. Leonardi said he was merely following orders from his superior, Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, who was the budget holder.
Leonardi objected to the change in the legal basis in the military prosecutor's charges, namely the substitution of Article 2(1) of the Corruption Offences Law with Article 603 of the new Criminal Code. His lawyer, Rinto Maha, stated that this change in article was not mentioned in either the investigation order or the original indictment, thus violating the principle of legality and the due process of law doctrine.
Leonardi also highlighted the change in the alleged state loss from Rp306.8 billion to Rp349.4 billion in the charges. His lawyer said that the value of losses that kept changing over time could not legally be qualified as actual losses.
In the indictment, prosecutors stated that Leonardi signed a satellite procurement contract with Airbus Defence and Space worth US$495 million without state budget allocation. Prosecutors said the project later faced problems when the government failed to meet payment obligations, resulting in international arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce with an obligation for the state to pay US$20,901,209.9 plus interest.
