INDONESIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Stephen Igor Warokka and Mutiara Kasih Ramadhani, SSEK Law Firm
tised receivables or maritime liens, a party may file a civil claim to the relevant district court. Maritime claims are defined in Article 223 of the Shipping Law as being in line with provisions regarding the arrest of ships, as described in 4.1 Ship Arrests . Maritime claims also include expenses related to the utilisation, operation or leasing of a vessel, as well as transportation expenses for cargo or passengers aboard a ship, as stipulated in a charterparty or other relevant arrangements. 4.3 Liability in Personam for Owners or Demise Charterers In the case of a civil claim relating to a maritime claim, Article 223 of the Shipping Law stipulates that a ship can be detained without a lawsuit process. However, as far as is known, this has never occurred in practice, and both civil and criminal matters must go through the process of obtaining a court order to determine that a liability has been established. After a court order is obtained, the harbour master may carry out Under Article 223 of the Shipping Law, the cost of bunkers and bunkering activities may be a basis for maritime claims and therefore can lead to the arrest of a vessel. Indonesian law does not provide any further regulations on the difference between a contractual supplier and an actual supplier for unpaid bunkers. As vessel arrest will take place as a result of a court order, the con - tractual supplier, actual supplier or whomever is the aggrieved party may ask the courts to issue an arrest warrant to the harbour master. the arrest of the vessel. 4.4 Unpaid Bunkers If bunkers are supplied to a chartered vessel, it is possible that the bunker supplier may not be able to submit a claim to arrest the vessel,
as the charterer is not seen as the owner of the vessel. Although the ICC provides that the costs for the bunker should be borne by the charterer, the degree of the charterer’s responsibility and authority over the vessel arising from the con - tract may differ based on the specific terms out - lined in the charter agreement. Nonetheless, the bunker supplier claimant may still submit a civil claim with a standard civil proceeding for unpaid bunkers. In any event, as stated above, due to the absence of implement - ing regulations, the bunker supplier claimant still needs to pursue a standard civil proceeding even in the case of supplying bunkers to a vessel operated by the ship-owner. 4.5 Arresting a Vessel As discussed in 4.1 Ship Arrests , under Article 222 of the Shipping Law, the arrest of vessels may be carried out by the harbour master at the relevant port, pursuant to a court order. As ship arrest may be carried out based on criminal or civil maritime claims, reference must be made to the confiscation of assets within civil or criminal proceedings. As stated in Article 1(16) of the Indonesian Crimi - nal Procedural Code ( Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Acara Pidana – KUHAP ), the confisca - tion of assets will be carried out by an investiga - tor, where there will be a seizure of movable or immovable and tangible or intangible assets to be used for evidence in an investigation, pros - ecution and proceeding. Article 39 of the KUHAP states that certain assets may be seized if they are directly used to conduct a crime or to pre - pare for the same, if they are used to prevent a criminal investigation, or if they are directly related to a crime.
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