A decision by a court in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan to acquit a Chinese national accused of illegally mining tens of millions of dollars worth of gold has been questioned by legal experts, with one calling it an injustice for the affected community.
Yu Hao was initially convicted in October by a lower court for mining without permits from February to May last year and was handed a jail term of three and a half years and a fine of 30 billion rupiah (US$1.9 million), lower than the prosecution’s request for five years’ imprisonment and a 50 billion rupiah fine to be imposed on Yu.
Following an appeal by Yu, the Pontianak High Court on January 13 acquitted the defendant due to a lack of “valid and convincing evidence”. The Attorney General’s office has said that it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The West Kalimantan police revealed last year that Yu had allegedly mined 774.27 kg of gold and 937.7 kg of silver illegally in the province, causing state losses estimated at 1.02 trillion rupiah (US$61 million). The suspect allegedly dug tunnels that were unsupervised by licensed gold miners by using heavy machinery as well as dangerous and forbidden substances such as mercury to extract the precious metal.
More than 80 Chinese workers and locals were employed to carry out the illegal operations, the police said at the time.
The ruling in West Kalimantan came after Indonesian police said in September that they were investigating the alleged involvement of 15 Chinese nationals at an illegal gold mine in the Sekotong area in West Lombok regency. The mine’s operations had led to residents setting it on fire, according to the police.
