There are many irregularities in the SP3 both from the legal and administrative points of view."
Pekanbaru (ANTARA News) - Environmentalists of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), said they have a team of 13 lawyers to help them in their pretrial bid against SP3 decision by Riau police that dropped forest fire cases involving 15 forestry companies in Riau.

"Our team of lawyers will be present and we will bring in new evidence to the pretrial," one of Walhi lawyers Indra Jaya said here on Friday.

Last week, Walhi officially filed pretrial suit with the Pekanbaru district court. According to plan, the pretrial session would be held on Monday with suspect an industrial timber estate company PT Sumatera Riang Lestari.

Walhi was confident the district court would be objective in its decision on the case, Indra said.

"There are many irregularities in the SP3 both from the legal and administrative points of view," he said.

There are many proofs neglected by police in handling the case such as fires that destroyed forests and haze of smokes that caused health hazard and disrupted flight scheduled.

Director of Riau branch of Walhi Riko Kurniawan said the non governmental organization had received copy of the SP3 documents from police.

Riko said Walhi sought pretrial began with PT Sumatera Riang Lestari while waiting for the SP3 documents for other companies.

Riau police chief Big.Gen. Zulkarnain said the Riau police are ready to face the pretrial demanded by the environmentalists.

Meanwhile lawmaker Jazilul Fawaid of the Commission III of the Parliament expressed regret with the decision of police to drop the forest fires.

The 15 companies were accused of being responsible for forest fires in Riau in July 2015.

Jazilul said by dropping the cases, the state had been defeated by the 15 companies.

The 15 companies included PT Bina Duta Laksana (HTI), PT Ruas Utama Jaya (HTI), PT Perawang Sukses Perkasa Indonesia (HTI), PT Suntara Gajah Pati (HTI), PT Dexter Perkasa Industri (HTI), PT Siak Raya Timber (HTI), PT Sumatera Riang Lestari (HTI), PT Bukit Raya Pelalawan (HTI), PT Hutani Sola Lestari, KUD Bina Jaya Langgam (HTI), PT Rimba Lazuardi (HTI), PT PAN United (HTI), PT Parawira (Perkebunan), PT Alam Sari Lestari (Perkebunan), and PT Riau Jaya Utama.
(Uu.H-ASG/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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