VZCZCXYZ0010
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHJA #0690 1070549
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 170549Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2143
INFO RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 3319
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS JAKARTA 000690 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, INR/EAP, INL FOR CARLON, 
DOJ FOR DAAG SWARTZ, OPDAT FOR BERMAN/ALEXANDRE/JOHNSON, OIA FOR 
ROBINSON/WERNER 
NCTC 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KCRM KJUS SNAR ID
SUBJECT:  INDONESIA TRANSMITS ITS FIRST MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE 
REQUEST TO THE U.S. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On April 13, 2009, Indonesia transmitted its first 
competent mutual legal assistance request to the U.S. for computer 
evidence relating to a corruption investigation.  This request was a 
breakthrough because until now the formal Indonesian mutual legal 
assistance request regime has proven largely dysfunctional.  This 
success was a result of the relationship built through providing 
direct, hands on assistance to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. 
 End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The formal mutual legal assistance (MLA) system in 
Indonesia has never worked.  Informal law enforcement requests, by 
contrast, have worked fairly well.  Part of the problem is 
structural -- the 2006 Mutual Legal Assistance law placed the 
"Central Authority" for sending and receiving requests within the 
Ministry of Law and Human Rights, which has no operational capacity 
and lacks the authority to compel government agencies and private 
parties to satisfy requests.  Therefore, the Ministry must convene 
an interagency meeting to consider each request.  In addition, 
Indonesia's small Central Authority receives only a few dozen 
requests each year, and therefore lacks the necessary systems for 
routinely processing of MLA requests.  By contrast, the US Central 
Authority, DOJ's Office of International Affairs (OIA), processes 
approximately 6000 incoming and outgoing foreign requests annually. 
As a result, despite the best of intentions and numerous 
donor-supported MLA conferences and training programs, MLA requests 
from the US and elsewhere disappear into a black hole, and Indonesia 
rarely issues its own.  This lack of capacity hinders Indonesia's 
effort to cooperate in transnational criminal cases and forfeitures 
and has been an issue in our stalled ongoing Mutual Legal Assistance 
Treaty negotiations between the US and Indonesia. 
 
¶3. (SBU) By contrast, the Indonesian National Police have been 
highly cooperative with U.S. law enforcement in exchanging 
information through informal assistance requests.  However, these 
assistance requests have significant limitations.  Where U.S. law 
enforcement must use court-ordered compulsion to obtain evidence 
requested by Indonesia, however, such as for bank records, computer 
records, witness depositions, or search warrants, the formal MLA 
process must be used under US law. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In August 2008, the DOJ/OPDAT Resident Legal Advisor 
brought OIA's Regional Justice Attache, Robert Courtney, to Jakarta 
to embed himself within the Ministry of Law for four days to allow 
him to discuss issues with the both senior and junior members at the 
Central Authority on an informal basis.  The Ministry provided him 
full access, even to their active MLA requests received from other 
countries, which allowed him to identify directly the legal, 
interagency, and internal managerial obstacles within the Indonesian 
MLA process.  Based on this approach, Courtney prepared a detailed 
written report for the head of the Central Authority that identified 
potential solutions to management and interagency issues as well as 
propose legal amendments to the 2006 MLA law.  It also allowed DOJ 
to build a personal relationship with the members of department to 
facilitate future MLA requests. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The benefits of this more hands on approach have resulted 
in the Ministry of Law's first success in sending a competent MLA 
request for US evidence.  In January, the Corruption Eradication 
Commission (KPK) asked FBI Legatt, OIA and the RLA for assistance in 
obtaining certain electronic evidence from a United States Internet 
Service Provider (ISP) to aid a corruption investigation into a 
multi-million dollar government procurement fraud.  Because this 
type of evidence requires a court order in the U.S., informal 
cooperation was not an option.  When DOJ explained that the request 
had to originate from Indonesia's designated Central Authority in 
order for the US to satisfy it, the KPK initially protested, 
expressing their concern that the Ministry of Law could competently 
handle processing their request and that its confidentiality would 
not be maintained.  In the ensuing weeks, however, OIA worked to 
rewrite the request into an internationally accepted format and 
helped move it through the laborious process within the Ministry of 
Law, before it was finally transmitted to DOJ on April 13, 2009. 
 
¶6. (SBU) While the internal Indonesian process for this initial 
request was cumbersome and took months longer than should have been 
necessary, the KPK and Ministry of Law now have developed an 
acceptable template for future MLA requests.  Without much needed 
additional legal authority and practical experience, it will still 
take several years before Indonesia can routinely make and satisfy 
MLA requests, but the transmission of this first request is a step 
forward. 
 
HUME