28 get travel bans over illegal logging

JAKARTA: The National Police announced on Tuesday that travel bans had been placed on 28 people, mostly Malaysians, who allegedly financed illegal logging in Papua and other parts of the country.

Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis said the suspects included only two Indonesian, while the remaining 26 were Malaysian citizens, including PT Wapoga Mutiara Timber president director Tan Eng Kwee and PT Malindo Utama Jaya president director Sie Kee Ming.

The two Indonesians included one Fenny Rahmad, who worked for a Malaysian citizen identified as Weng Ximing.

However, the police could not say whether the 28 suspects were still in Indonesia or had already fled abroad.

Earlier, two officials from the Papua forestry office were arrested for issuing unauthorized logging permits, while four mid-ranking police officers were questioned for allegedly taking bribes from illegal logging financiers.

Since the start of a joint operation against illegal logging in Papua, the police have arrested a total of 69 suspects, including nine Malaysian nationals, and seized 326,058 cubic meters of logs and 7,235 cubic meters of processed timber, along with 727 pieces of heavy equipment, four barges and eight tugboats. --JP