JAKARTA - A prominent environmental expert witness in Indonesia faces a lawsuit by a palm oil company after testifying against its practices, in the second case of its kind this year.
The move has stoked fear among activists, who say it's part of an escalating campaign to silence environmental defenders.
The lawsuit was filed by palm oil firm PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa (JJP) against Bambang Hero Saharjo, a forestry expert from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), on Sept. 17 with a court in Cibinong, in West Java province.
Bambang had testified in 2015 as a witness for the prosecution in a government lawsuit against JJP for negligence leading to fires in its concession in Sumatra. A key part of his testimony was his financial assessment of the environmental damage done as a result of the fires. His expertise was seen as instrumental in the guilty verdict subsequently handed down to JJP.
For Bambang, the lawsuit brought by JJP has spurred an outpouring of public support. An online petition at Change.org calling for the lawsuit to be dropped had garnered more than 52,000 signatures as of Oct. 10.
On Oct. 8, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry held a press conference in Jakarta to show its support for Bambang. Rasio said at the conference that Bambang had helped the government in its efforts to prosecute environmentally destructive companies, such as plantation firms that use fire to clear land.
According to the ministry, Bambang has testified as an expert witness in 24 environmental cases, including some high-profile forest fire cases. Chief among them is the landmark case that saw a palm oil company fined millions of dollars for burning carbon-rich peatlands in Sumatra's Aceh province.
"Bambang Hero is our hero, just like his name," Rasio said. "He has been fighting alongside the ministry for almost 20 years to make sure that people can enjoy a healthy environment. He plays an enormous role in helping us tackle forestry crimes. So we have to save Bambang Hero because he’s our hero."
Riko Kurniawan, head of the Walhi chapter in Sumatra's Riau province, where JJP's concession is located, said the people of Riau owed a lot to Bambang because his testimonies had brought many land-burning companies there to justice.
"Millions of people in Riau have been spared from a haze disaster in the past two years partly because of Bamban'’s involvement in prosecuting forest fire perpetrators," he said. "From 1997 to 2015, the people of Riau were exposed to haze almost every year because of how difficult it was to punish forest fire perpetrators."
While Indonesia has no shortage of forestry experts, few are willing to testify publicly in court against environmentally destructive companies. Bambang, according to those close to him, is known for his courage and dogged determination to get to the bottom of each case.
"Only a few have the courage to provide us with scientific evidence that incriminates forest-burning companies," said Nazir Foead, the head of the government's peatland restoration agency, BRG. "Prosecutors are always having difficulty finding experts willing to testify."
Bambang had testified in 2015 as a witness for the prosecution in a government lawsuit against JJP for negligence leading to fires in its concession in Sumatra. A key part of his testimony was his financial assessment of the environmental damage done as a result of the fires. His expertise was seen as instrumental in the guilty verdict subsequently handed down to JJP.
The court also fined the company 119.8 billion rupiah ($7.9 million) and ordered it to pay for the restoration of 10 square kilometers (3.9 square miles) of burned plantation, estimated at 371.1 billion rupiah ($24.4 million).
The company has now turned its attention to Bambang, suing him not over the substance of his testimony, but on a mere technicality: In its lawsuit, JJP says the evidence presented by Bambang was inadmissible because it used both the IPB logo and the letterhead of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. (The ministry, which brought the lawsuit against JJP, had commissioned Bambang to carry out the environmental damage assessment.)
Because of this, the company is seeking a total of 510 billion rupiah ($33.5 million) in damages from Bambang.
Bambang said the lawsuit was an attempt by JJP to shirk its responsibility.
said "They want to wash their hands clean of the fires that truly happened and destroyed the environment and emitted greenhouse gases - something that shouldn't have happened. I won't back off, not even one step, because there are already many cases waiting for me," he said. "I will keep fighting for the people's constitutional right to a healthy environment. We can't afford to be afraid in the face of lawsuit threats like those from JJP."
Worrying trend
The lawsuit against Bambang is the second filed this year by JJP against a witness over their testimony. Earlier this year, Basuki Wasis, also an environmental expert from IPB, was hit with a lawsuit on similarly frivolous grounds. In his case, the company said his testimony was inadmissible because of a typo in one of the documents he’d presented as evidence. JJP sought 610 billion rupiah ($44 million) in damages from Basuki, before dropping its demands upon mediation.
For Basuki, it was just the latest pushback to his testimonies in a litany of environmental cases. In March, Nur Alam, the governor of Southeast Sulawesi province at the time, sued Basuki after the expert testified that illegal mining activities permitted by Alam had caused extensive damage to the environment.
Alam was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay fines and damages totaling 3.7 billion rupiah ($243,000). But his lawsuit against Basuki continues. However experts' testimonies in court are protected by the law of Indonesia. But the fact that experts continue to face a backlash for their testimonies highlights the need for additional regulations empowering police and prosecutors to act against SLAPP litigation, activists say.
"We're waiting for a regulation to be issued that can guarantee the protection of everyone [from being criminalized], including experts," Walhi's Khalisah said.
While Indonesia has no shortage of forestry experts, few are willing to testify publicly in court against environmentally destructive companies. Bambang, according to those close to him, is known for his courage and dogged determination to get to the bottom of each case.
"Only a few have the courage to provide us with scientific evidence that incriminates forest-burning companies,” said Nazir Foead, the head of the government’s peatland restoration agency, BRG. “Prosecutors are always having difficulty finding experts willing to testify."
Bambang said that throughout his career, he often received threats whenever investigating a forest fire case. But, he added, he had never been sued before over his testimony - until the JJP case.
"It never crossed my mind that I would be sued, because I did everything in accordance wih procedure and based on science," he said. "And the fire (in JJP's concession) truly happened and it's already proven because I went to the site, I took samples and I analyzed the fire using satellite imagery."
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