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With the authorities continuing to flout a court order to identify the producers of bacteria-tainted formula milk, the lawyer who brought the case to light said on Monday he would file for an injunction forcing them to comply.

David ML Tobing, a consumer advocate lawyer, said he would file a request to seize test documentation at the center of the scandal and disclose the results himself.

“If they continue to refuse, the Supreme Court will give them a warning that basically gives them eight days to comply,” he said.

“If they ignore the warning, the court can seize the research documents and I can announce the tainted brands myself.”

The controversy stems from a study conducted between 2003 and 2006 by the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB). It found that five out of 22 brands of formula milk were contaminated with the potentially deadly Enterobacter sakazakii bacterium.

David then filed suit with the Supreme Court to get the Health Ministry and the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) to disclose the brands.

In April last year, the court ruled that the tainted brands should be disclosed, but the ruling was only announced through its Web site last month.

The Health Ministry said it could not name names because it did not know which brands were affected, while IPB refused to disclose the brands because it said it had not yet received any formal notification of the court’s ruling.

However, David said the latter’s argument was flawed.

“It’s not a good enough excuse,” he said.

“Of course they haven’t received an official copy of the ruling because they need to pick it up themselves at the court. That’s the procedure.”

Last week, IPB rector Herry Suhardiyanto told Antara that the ruling put the university in a difficult situation because as an independent institution it was not obliged to report its findings.