Activist says Marzuki leaked Bank Bali story
JAKARTA (JP): With the Attorney General's Office still examining the corruption aspects of the Bank Bali scandal, Jakarta Police have opened an investigation into possible criminal aspects of the US$70 million under-the-table payment.
Labor activist Eggy Sudjana met with city police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman on Thursday and presented documents alleging the involvement of Golkar Party deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman in making the scandal public knowledge.
Eggy, chairman of the Muslim Workers Solidarity Union, said after the meeting that he suspected Marzuki leaked the scandal- related documents to banking law expert Pradjoto.
"I have the evidence and a person willing to testify that Marzuki was the person who supplied the documents to Pradjoto," he said.
Pradjoto revealed to the media early this month that two businessmen, including Golkar deputy treasurer Setya Novanto, colluded with a deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to push Bank Bali to pay a Rp 546 billion commission.
The latter was secured on the pretext it was needed to help the bank recoup Rp 946 billion in its interbank claims on loans to closed banks.
The commission was paid to PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), a firm which is controlled by the two businessmen.
Pradjoto briefed police detectives at the National Police Headquarters on Wednesday in connection with the police investigation into the allegations.
Marzuki termed Eggy's allegation to be "mischievous views" which were shifting the focus from the scandal to him personally.
"He (Eggy) has sidetracked the real issue," Marzuki told The Jakarta Post by phone.
"I do not deny that I know Pradjoto well. But the topic is about Bank Bali, not me."
Baramuli vs 'Gamma'
About half an hour before meeting Eggy, Noegroho also met chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA) A.A. Baramuli, who lodged a complaint concerning the cover story of the latest edition of Gamma weekly.
"Gamma had not confirmed the content with me before it ran the story," he said after the meeting. "It's against the press code of ethics."
Baramuli took exception to Gamma's use of the text of a taped conversation purportedly between him and Setya Novanto in the nine-page cover story.
"I have not met Setya in the past three weeks. How could Gamma print a story that I had spoken to him about the scandal?"
The cover story concludes that Baramuli spoke to Setya about the scandal, based on contents of the taped conversation.
Voices on the tape, the magazine said, "strongly resembled those of Baramuli and Setya Novanto".
Meanwhile, multimedia expert Roy Suryo from Yogyakarta's Gajah Mada University said on Tuesday he could conduct voice analysis of the tape.
"I can analyze the voices on the tape. I can determine whether the voices are those of Setya and Baramuli or not," he said. (ylt/23)