'Illegal logging' police to face trial<\/p>\n
Nethy Dharma Somba and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post\/Jayapura\/Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Five police officers allegedly involved in illegal logging in
\nSorong, Papua, arrived on Monday in Jayapura and will be handed
\nover soon to the Papua Prosecutor's Office for investigations.<\/p>\n
Three of the officers, escorted by a senior police officer
\nfrom National Police headquarters, came to Jayapura from Jakarta,
\nwhile two others came without escorts from Manokwari, Papua and
\nMakassar, South Sulawesi province.<\/p>\n
The three officers in question were former Sorong police chief
\nAdj. Sr. Comr. Faisal AN, former deputy chief of Sorong police
\nAdj. Sr. Comr. I Putu Mahesa, former Sorong detective chief of
\noperations First Inspector Anshar Djohar, and Second Inspector
\nWidodo and Head Brigadier Aceng Ganda, both former Sorong
\ndetectives. Another officer allegedly involved in the case was
\nformer Sorong detective chief Adj. Comr. Taswin, who remains at
\nlarge and is on the wanted persons' list.<\/p>\n
Upon arriving in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province,
\nAnshar was placed in detention at National Police headquarters.
\nAnshar was officially named a suspect.<\/p>\n
The other four officers stayed a night at a hotel in the city,
\nbefore being questioned as witnesses in the case on Tuesday, said
\nthe Director of Intelligence Sr. Comr. Mangisi Situmorang at
\nPapua police headquarters, who met with the police officers. The
\nfour have not as yet been named suspects.<\/p>\n
Faisal and his colleagues are charged with violating Article
\n263 of the criminal code on forgery, which carries a six-year
\nprison term, and also Article 221 on concealing evidence, which
\ncan bring a six months term in prison.<\/p>\n
Faisal was accused for giving misleading reports to his
\nsuperior about logs seized from the MV Africa on Jan. 15, 2002.<\/p>\n
The Panama-registered MV Africa was earlier seized by Adj.
\nComr. Kunto Aji from the Sorong water police unit and later
\nhanded over to the Sorong police for further legal processing.<\/p>\n
After the evidence had been handed over to the Sorong police,
\nit then disappeared, while Faisal, the Sorong police chief at
\nthat time, reported to the Papua police chief that he was still
\ninvestigating the case.<\/p>\n
The ship was loaded with about 12,000 cubic meters of merbau
\nwood and was owned by Felix Welianto, a timber businessman in
\nSorong. Faisal was also charged for concealing evidence because
\nthe MV Africa and its shipment of logs went missing.<\/p>\n
Felix was detained by the Sorong police but was later released
\nbecause the data submitted by the Sorong police to the
\nprosecutor's office was insufficient to prove that the timber was
\nseized from the ship. The whereabouts of the MV Africa and a
\nMalaysian suspect involved in the case are still unknown.<\/p>\n
Separately in Yogyakarta, the Minister of Forestry M.S. Ka'ban
\nsaid that since last week Indonesian authorities have confiscated
\nsome 48,000 cubic meters of logs in East Kalimantan province
\nalone.<\/p>\n
The large number of logs seized proved that the problem of
\nillegal logging in the province was extremely grave, said Ka'ban.<\/p>",
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