New Courts to Fight Illegal Fishing

By Barrie | October 18th, 2007 | No Comments

The government has established fishery courts in Jakarta, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan, North Sulawesi and Maluku. The five fishery courts will make use of a number of court rooms in the district courts in North Jakarta, Medan, Pontianak, Bitung and Tual, the regency capital of Southeast Maluku, Maluku, until their official buildings are completed.

The fishery courts, which are based on Article 71 of the 2004 Fishery law, will be led by a team of judges, comprising of a presiding judge and two ad hoc justices.

Prosecutions will be carried out by prosecutors who have been trained in the field of fishery.

Twenty-eight ad hoc justices will be tasked to hear fishery cases, along with 90 prosecutors.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan said while officially launching the courts at Medan District Court in North Sumatra earlier this month that they were set up based on several considerations, including economic factors.

He said the country lost trillions of rupiah each year due to illegal fishing in Indonesian waters.

The country, he said, seemed helpless in facing foreign trawlers which were apparently “free to roam and steal marine riches”.

“We will drag the foreign fishermen involved in illegal fishing to the fishery courts. I’m positive the courts will be able to uphold the country’s sea sovereignty,” said Bagir in his speech at Medan District Court.

He said he would not turn a blind eye to district court rulings that handed down lenient sentences or pardoned the accused.
Bagir said the presence of five fishery courts in five provinces was a novelty in the country, while Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said it was possibly a world first.

Bagir said the country has set up special trade, human rights, corruption and industrial relations courts, while an environmental court and an agriculture court are still in the planning stages.
Freddy said the ministry looked forward to assisting the court in resolving widespread illegal fishing by foreign vessels.

“We actually want every foreign fishing vessel caught operating illegally within our waters to be immediately sunk without going to trial, so as to deter them.

“But, as the law prohibits that, we hope every illegal fishing case committed by foreigners can be handled promptly by the courts, so we can make use of their vessels for training at fishery schools across the country,” said Freddy.

He said his office was still examining around 1,600 fishing boats it had seized recently, 100 of which were foreign vessels.

“The state incurs losses to the tune of Rp 30 trillion every year. This is an extraordinary figure, so that’s why we should protect our seas from acts of illegal fishing, and one way is through the fishery court,” Freddy said.

Apriadi Gunawan