Ginandjar refuses to answer summons<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A deputy speaker of the People's Consultative
\nAssembly, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, a retired three-star Air Force
\ngeneral, turned down the summons of the Attorney General's Office
\non Thursday as approval from the Indonesian Military commander
\nfor his questioning in connection with a corruption case had not
\nbeen issued.<\/p>\n
Ginandjar's lawyer, Muchyar Yara, argued that the Attorney
\nGeneral's Office should first obtain such an approval before
\nquestioning his client.<\/p>\n
\"My client will fulfill the summons, as a witness, with the
\napproval of the military commander.<\/p>\n
\"But we object to the Attorney General's Office naming him as
\na suspect, what's more, questioning him as a suspect, because
\nthey don't have the right (to do so).<\/p>\n
\"It's not that my client intends to escape the legal
\nproceedings. But he was still an active military officer during
\nthe period in question, so the case (with Ginandjar as a suspect)
\nshould be handled by a joint investigators' team involving the
\nmilitary,\" he told a press briefing.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, state prosecutors imposed a one-year travel
\nban on the retired Air Force Vice Marshal for his alleged role in
\na US$18 million graft case, Attorney General's Office spokesman
\nMuljohardjo announced.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Muchyar said his client was not reacting much to the
\ntravel ban, adding that Ginandjar would first study the authority
\nof the Attorney General's Office to impose it.<\/p>\n
\"We could sue the Attorney General's Office for imposing the
\ntravel ban on my client,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Ginandjar, a former minister of energy and mineral resources,
\nwas named a suspect on March 1 for illegally approving four
\ntechnical assistance contracts between the state oil and gas
\ncompany Pertamina and private oil company PT Ustraindo Petro Gas
\nin early 1992 and 1993.<\/p>\n
Most of the firm's shares belonged to former president
\nSoeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors have also named Ginandjar's successor, Ida
\nBagus Sudjana a suspect for amending the contracts, which later
\nincurred another $6.8 million losses to the state, and PT
\nUstraindo's director Praptono H. Tjitrohupojo, a relative of the
\nwife of former president Soeharto, the late Tien Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Suspect Faisal Abda'oe, former president of Pertamina, was
\ndetained at the Attorney General's Office compound on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors found that the contracts violated regulations
\non technical assistance contracts because they covered oil fields
\nwhich were still productive at that time, including the Bunyu oil
\nfield, East Kalimantan, Prabumulih and Pendopo in South Sumatra
\nand Jatibarang on the north coast of West Java.<\/p>\n
Starting in February, the Attorney General's Office sent
\nseveral summonses to question Ginandjar, who was in the United
\nStates for an academic program at Harvard University, under the
\nauspices of the Indonesian embassy and the Ministry of Foreign
\nAffairs.<\/p>\n
Ginandjar, who had several ministerial positions under his
\nbelt during past administrations, had repeatedly indicated that
\nhe would only return to Jakarta in July, when the program is
\ncompleted.<\/p>\n
Muchyar said that his client had not planned to leave Jakarta
\nfor the U.S. to continue his academic program.<\/p>\n
Detention<\/p>\n
On the same day, the Attorney General's Office detained three
\nbankers who are implicated in the misuse of the state liquidity
\nsupport extended to their ailing banks.<\/p>\n
They are respectively, former director of PT Bank Umum
\nServitia, David Nusa Wijaya alias Ng Tjuen Wie; the vice
\npresident of the PT Bank Umum Nasional (BUN) board of
\ncommissioners, Kaharudin Ongko; and former commissioner of Bank
\nModern, Samadikun Hartono.<\/p>\n
All of them would be detained for 20 days, Muljohardjo said.<\/p>\n
PT Bank Umum Servitia received a total of more than Rp 1.2
\ntrillion of the emergency loan to cope with the economic crisis
\nbetween 1997 and 1999. However, the prosecutors found that more
\nthan half of the funds, or about Rp 681 billion, had been
\nmisappropriated.<\/p>\n
PT BUN, whose president commissioner was the magnate Mohamad
\n\"Bob\" Hasan, also a suspect in the case, received Rp 12 trillion
\nin loans but the bank misused some Rp 5 trillion of this.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors revealed that the money was used to finance
\nthe bank's affiliated business groups or to repay their loans,
\ninstead of covering the payment to the bank's clients.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found that from a total of Rp
\n144.5 trillion in liquidity support channeled to 48 banks, some
\nRp 138.4 trillion or 95 percent of the loans had either been
\nmisused or were extended in violation of banking rules.<\/p>\n
So far only one case, involving PT Bank Aspac, had been
\nbrought to trial. (bby)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ginandjar-refuses-to-answer-summons-1447893297",
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