I. The Respondent’s request for document inspection 

On 16 May 2014, Indonesia requested that the Tribunal order the Claimants to present 1.for inspection the originals of 31 documents (the “Respondent’s Request”, see also Annex 1 to the Request entitled “List of disputed documents”). Indonesia explained that the Claimants have relied on the disputed documents to argue that they have a protected right “to survey and explore the land in the Regency of East Kutai”. Relying on a forensic expert report of Mr. Epstein dated 9 May 2014 (the “Epstein Report”),1 the Respondent argued that there is “substantial evidence indicating that the disputed documents are not authentic”, including irregularities regarding the signatures of the Regent of East Kutai and the format of the disputed documents.2 For the Respondent, an inspection of the disputed documents is thus necessary to determine “the method of affixing the signature” on these documents. 

In their letter of 28 May 2014, the Claimants objected to the Respondent’s request for 2.inspection of the documents on the following grounds. First, the Respondent has failed to meet the burden of showing, even prima facie, that the requested documents are “irregular or falsified in any way”. For instance, the Respondent has offered no evidence that the “use of a signature stamp or other method of replicating a signature by the Regent” was unusual or otherwise irregular nor did it file a witness statement of the Regent to that effect. As a result, the inspection of the documents is “a costly and fruitless endeavour”. Second, the list of disputed documents (see Annex 1 to the Respondent’s request) consists of 31 documents, 11 more than the documents identified by Mr. Epstein, without offering any expert evidence or explanation as to the necessity to examine these 11 documents “beyond a vague reference to the ‘formatting’ of those documents”. Third, the Respondent’s “sweeping statement” that it does not have any original of the requested documents must be rejected and the Tribunal should direct the Respondent to produce official letters certifying that its agencies and instrumentalities possess no originals.