Indonesia’s climate change credentials have suffered a serious set back after a key player in the country’s illegal logging business was acquitted of criminal charges over the destruction of 58,000 ha of virgin Sumatran forest, according to a report in The Australian newspaper. Businessman Adelin Lis was the subject of an international manhunt and what Sumatran police called the most comprehensive investigation they have conducted into forest destruction. He managed to avoid a 10-year jail sentence and more than 120 billion rupiah ($12.76 million) in fines and reforestation imposts, the report stated.

Judges ruled that evidence against Lis was inadequate to prove anything other than “administrative neglect”. The decision was handed down just as the country prepares for the UN climate change conference in Bali starting next week. “This does irreparable damage to Indonesia’s forest protection credentials,” Rully Syumanda, legal adviser to the peak environment body Walhi, told The Australian. Lis was arrested in Beijing last year after fleeing charges of illegal logging causing damages to the state estimated at Rp230 trillion. The head of forestry firm Majur Timber Group and two related companies, he was charged under anti-corruption laws with failing to pay forestry concession fees and compulsory reforestation funds, the report stated.