Graft convict on the run, still not declared fugitive<\/p>\n
Tertiana ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
After a fruitless one-month search for corruption convict David
\nNusa Wijaya, the Attorney General's Office has still not declared
\nhim a fugitive.<\/p>\n
Office spokesman Barman Zahir said Friday that they would send
\na summons to his home in Jakarta, Antara reported. He did not
\nmention when the summons would be issued.<\/p>\n
David, director of the now-defunct Bank Servitia, was
\nsentenced to one year in prison by the West Jakarta District
\nCourt last March for misusing Rp 1.3 trillion of the state's
\nemergency bank loans disbursed in 1999.<\/p>\n
Soon after the case was brought to court, the panel of judges
\npresided over by PA Sianipar, David was released from detention
\nbecause the court allowed his request to postpone detention.<\/p>\n
Despite the guilty verdict, the court did not order David to
\nimmediately go to jail.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta High Court, in response to the prosecutors'
\nappeal, ruled on May 20 that David must be sent to jail.<\/p>\n
But it turned out that David had fled his residence in
\nMampang, South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors have asked the police for help in the search.<\/p>\n
The Institution for Research and Advocacy for Independent
\nJudiciary (LeIP) criticized the West Jakarta District Court
\njudges who released David from detention.<\/p>\n
\"We urge the Supreme Court to examine the lower court's
\ndecision on the suspension of David's detention as well as the
\nlenient ruling,\" LeIP's executive secretary Rifqi S. Assegaf
\nsaid in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He also called for the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code
\n(KUHAP), which allows prosecutors or judges to use subjective
\nconsiderations in deciding whether a suspect or convict should be
\nput in prison.<\/p>\n
Legal expert Bambang Widjojanto added that since corruption
\nhas been categorized as an extraordinary crime, the judges should
\nnot use common procedures when handling such cases.<\/p>\n
\"Especially because it is been common knowledge that
\ncorruptors use health problems as an escape from prosecution and,
\nif they are imprisoned, they can escape as well,\" he told the
\nPost.<\/p>",
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