28 get travel bans over illegal logging

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