Former B. C. engineer freed from Indonesian jail
A Canadian engineer found guilty of corporate espionage in Indonesia has been released from jail after his three- year sentence was reduced to six months.
Rick van Lee, 63, is now with his wife, Nieves ( Maria) Navarro, in Singapore after an Indonesian High Court judge decided on Feb. 2 to reduce a lower court’s sentence, according to a website set up by van Lee’s friends and associates. Both van Lee’s lawyers and the prosecution had appealed the severity of the sentence shortly after a district court found him guilty in December. Van Lee’s defence also appealed the guilty verdict, which was upheld by the higher court.
In February 2011, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited ( APRIL) offered van Lee, a pulp and paper mill project manager with more than 30 years of experience in the industry, $ 1 million US to sign a new contract with their firm in Indonesia.
Van Lee refused the offer, choosing instead to shift to a competing Vancouverbased pulp and paper company. APRIL then accused van Lee of stealing trade secrets when they discovered he possessed backed- up company data.
On May 31, 2011, van Lee’s and Navarro’s car was confiscated and they were placed under house arrest for six weeks, guarded by APRIL’S private security staff in the company’s residential compound in Kerinci, Sumatra. APRIL said it was innocent of any wrongdoing, a claim disputed by van Lee’s wife and lawyers.
While in the company’s custody in June, van Lee suffered a stroke and was taken to hospital.
He was transferred July 5 into the custody of Indonesian authorities and charged based on an Indonesian law that prohibits stealing or altering electronic documents belonging to others.
Navarro said she couldn’t believe it when she heard her husband would be set free.
“My knees went soft,” she told The Sun last week. “My mouth went dry.”
Navarro waited in the parking lot at the jail for two hours for her husband to come out. “We hugged each other without uttering any word,” she said.
She said her husband lost 20 kilos during the ordeal but his health has “more or less” improved.
Van Lee’s Indonesian lawyers could not be reached to confirm details of his release. After The Sun first reported van Lee’s case in November, Canadian consular officials in Indonesia began attending his trial. The department of foreign affairs said it has monitored the situation, but declined to comment.