AGO to reopen probe into Ginandjar case

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office is expected to reopen the investigation into a corruption case involving former minister of mines and energy Ginandjar Kartasasmita, which allegedly inflicted a total of US$24.8 million in losses on the state.

Attorney General M.A. Rachman said on Friday that his office was close to establishing a joint civilian-military investigating team comprising state prosecutors, military prosecutors and Military Police personnel.

"The Indonesian military chief has replied to our request by instructing the Jakarta Military Police to provide six investigators for the team," he said after attending Friday prayers at his office.

The Jakarta Military Police had yet to name the officers who would be assigned to the case.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Barman Zahir said on Friday that eight prosecutors had been assigned to the team, bringing the total membership of the joint team to 14.

Ginandjar, his successor IB Sudjana, former state oil and gas company Pertamina's president Faisal Abda'oe and PT Ustraindo Petrogas director Praptono H. Tjitrohupojo have been accused of manipulating technical assistance contracts for oil development work in Balongan, West Java.

State prosecutors found in their earlier investigations that the deals between Pertamina and PT Ustraindo violated the regulations on technical assistance contracts because they covered oil fields that were still productive at the time.

The contracts with PT Ustraindo covered oil fields in Bunyu, E. Kalimantan, Prabumulih and Pendopo in South Sumatra, and Jatibarang on the north coast of West Java.

Ginandjar, who is also deputy chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), was detained last year but later released after the South Jakarta District Court ruled that his detention was illegal on the grounds that Ginandjar was a serving military officer when the offenses took place and should have been questioned by a joint investigating team.

A Supreme Court ruling issued in March overturned the lower court decision that had halted the investigation into the three- star Air Force Marshall (retired) and three other suspects in the case.

The Supreme Court also ruled that the trial of the alleged offenses that took place between 1992 and 1993 should be heard by a joint military-civilian court, even though the suspect was a cabinet minister in Soeharto's administration at the time.

According to Barman, the new joint team would have to start all over again, and Ginandjar had said he would cooperate with the investigation process.