Opposing Prison Sentence, Tom Lembong Officially Files an Appeal

Jakarta, Legal Literacy - Former Minister of Trade, Thomas Trikasih Lembong, also known as Tom Lembong, has officially filed an appeal. He rejects the prison sentence of 4 years and 6 months handed down by the Criminal Court Corruption (Tipikor) Jakarta. This decision is related to the corruption case in the sugar import period of 2015-2016. This legal action was filed by his legal advisory team on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. From the beginning, the defense team was very confident that their client would be acquitted at the appeal level.

Main Points in the Defense

According to the legal team, there are several strong reasons to file an appeal. First, they believe Tom Lembong did not have malicious intent (known in law as mens rea). Therefore, they are targeting a complete acquittal. The defense team is currently preparing an important document called an appeal memorandum. In it, they will outline various irregularities in the judge's considerations. They feel the verdict does not align with the facts revealed during the trial. For one, the panel of judges themselves acknowledged that Tom Lembong was not proven to have received money from this case. In addition, the defense team argues that their client's actions did not meet the elements of criminal corruption. On the contrary, the raw sugar import policy taken by Lembong at that time was claimed to have benefited the state by Rp 900 billion. Another crucial point to be raised is the fact that the policy was taken on the orders of President Joko Widodo, a fact they believe was ignored by the judge.

Prosecutor's Stance and Legal Expert Analysis

Meanwhile, the public prosecutor's office has not decided on its stance. They still have time to consider whether to file an appeal or not. This is because the judge's verdict is lower than their demand of 7 years in prison. On the other hand, criticism of this decision also came from legal academic, Albert Aries. He highlighted the judge's logic, which seemed to punish Tom Lembong for being negligent or not careful. In fact, according to Albert, the Anti-Corruption Law explicitly requires an element of intent, not just negligence. Therefore, he concluded that without strong and irrefutable evidence of malicious intent, an act cannot be considered a corruption crime according to the article used.