AGO urges reopening of Riau high-profile graft case
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Attorney General M.A. Rachman urged the Riau Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday to reopen the investigation into a graft case allegedly involving the province's former governor, Soeripto.
Rachman made the request to the new chief of the provincial prosecutor's office, M. Huzaini, who he swore in to replace Zainal Arifin Rifadin, Antara news agency reported.
"I hope the province's new chief prosecutor presents me with a report on the case and reopens the investigation into it," Rachman said in the Riau capital of Pekanbaru.
The Pekanbaru District Court suspended earlier this year a Rp 24 billion graft case allegedly involving Soeripto due to a lack of evidence, and asked prosecutors to amend the charges. Soeripto had been accused of misusing state funds allocated for a seashore reclamation project on Bintan island during his term as governor, which ran from 1990 to 1998.
Rachman urged provincial prosecutors to do everything within their power to get to the bottom of the alleged scam, as part of the nationwide anticorruption drive.
"That is why I ask (Huzaini) to amend the charges so that we can win the case in court without much trouble," Rachman said.
Soeripto is one of several governors and former governors who have been implicated in corruption cases during the reform era, which gained momentum with the fall of long-time president Soeharto in May 1998.
Former Bali governor Ida Bagus Oka was the last person to find himself included on this dubious list. However, Oka was cleared of all graft charges last month.
West Java Governor R. Nuriana and Lampung Governor Oemarsono have also been questioned over allegations of graft within their administrations.
Rachman recently met in Jakarta with chief prosecutors from across the country. From the meeting emerged a concerted effort to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism, known by the acronym KKN.
As a follow-up the meeting, North Sumatra chief prosecutor Chairuman Harahap plans to deploy hundreds of junior prosecutors to carry out investigations into 132 cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism reported to his office by the public.
Chairuman said the junior prosecutors would begin work immediately.
"We have summoned young prosecutors who we consider to be the best from among their peers. They will go through a one-week orientation program at the provincial prosecutor's office before the mission starts," Chairuman said in the North Sumatra capital of Medan on Wednesday.
He said he was committed to bringing all corrupters to justice. "I pledged to eradicate KKN when I was appointed to the top post in the provincial prosecutor's office. I will send the corrupters to jail regardless of their rank."
His office, he added, has completed dossiers on 18 graft suspects, including the treasurer of the Mandailing Natal Regency administration, who is now on trial at the Padang Sidempuan District Court for the alleged misuse of Rp 1.2 billion in state funds.
Allegations of KKN highlighted last weekend's plenary session of the South Kalimantan legislature, which heard factions' responses to Governor Sjachriel Darham's accountability speech.
The legislature accepted the accountability report, but factions from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, Golkar and Justice Mandate parties spoke out about the US$20 million excavation project on Barito river, which they said failed to live up to the terms of the contract.
A special team has been formed to investigate alleged irregularities in the project, which Sjachriel awarded to local company Sarana Duta Prima Putra and the China Harbour Engineering Company without an open tender.