Nugroho, however, alleged anomalies in the original case. He explained Lim had, in 2018, been accused of being an accomplice to the couple who had used his address for an insurance claim.
“Say my client was guilty,” he said. “The fact of the case was that the couple as the main perpetrators were sent down for 2.5 years [in 2018]. But Mr Lim’s sentenced to 4.5 years as an accomplice. Is that justice?”
He also said there was no urgency to take Lim into custody because his team had filed an appeal against the guilty verdict. “An arrest should only be made if we lose the appeal.”
But Suparji Ahmad, a law professor at Jakarta’s Al-Azhar University, disagreed.
“The ruling [from South Jakarta High Court] came with an order to detain [Lim]. It would have been a misstep for the attorney’s office not to proceed with the arrest.”
