Canada keeps eye on Indonesian espionage trial of Vancouver man
VANCOUVER
Canadian officials are attending the trial of a Canadian engineer accused of corporate espionage in Indonesia, though the government remains tight-lipped about the extent of its involvement.
In May, Rick van Lee, 63, was accused by his employers — a branch of Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL Group), one of the largest pulp and paper producers in Southeast Asia — of what they say was illegal copying of sensitive company information.
According to Timothy Inkiriwang, van Lee’s lawyer, the accused and his wife had their car confiscated and on May 31 were placed under house arrest for six weeks, guarded by APRIL’s private security staff in the company’s residential compound in Kerinci, Sumatra.
Inkiriwang believes his client was detained because he didn’t want to sign a new contract, preferring to take a job that would move van Lee back to Vancouver.
APRIL denies preventing the couple from leaving the compound, and say van Lee was collaborating illegally with a competitor.
According to his lawyer, van Lee was transferred July 5 into the custody of Indonesian authorities and charged based on an Indonesian criminal law that prohibits stealing or altering electronic documents belonging to others.
Inkiriwang told the Sun earlier this month that Canadian consular officials were not attending van Lee’s hearings. Since then, a pair of Canadian officials appeared in court on Nov. 14, Inkiriwang said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade wouldn’t comment on the matter, but noted Canadian officials in Indonesia are aware of the situation.
“The way we see it, Rick is not getting a fair trial,” Inkiriwang said. “(The injustice) shows by the lack of evidence and the awful handling of the case by the police investigators.” The judges, he said, act as if they are public prosecutors and take part in questioning witnesses directly, including van Lee. “We feel as if we’re opposing the judges, and not the public prosecutor, which we find very unusual and strange.”
The lawyer said police never performed digital forensics on van Lee’s computer, and the defence team fears evidence contained on van Lee’s laptop and external storage devices has not been handled properly by investigators.
“The laptop and USB (drive) . . . wasn’t confiscated from Rick, but from the company,” he said. “The right procedure . . . is that the evidence should be confiscated from the person that owns it,” he said.
APRIL spokeswoman Jamie Menon said they found evidence of several months’ worth of collaboration with a direct competitor by van Lee. That discovery triggered an internal company investigation, which led APRIL to involve the police.
At no point were van Lee and his wife prevented from leaving the compound or meeting with his lawyers, she said.
But, said Inkiriwang, “Rick was not allowed to leave the company’s compound, even during the time when we (his legal team) . . . came to visit him. They (APRIL’s security) escorted us to the hotel inside the complex, and brought Rick and his wife there to meet us. We couldn’t even meet outside of the complex until it (was) time to be interviewed by the police.”
Van Lee, who has suffered a minor stroke and lost 45 pounds while in custody, is slated to appear in court again Thursday, with a verdict expected sometime before Dec. 11.
If convicted, he could face up to eight years in Indonesian prison.