Akbar Tandjung a suspect in land scam, say police

Akbar Tandjung a suspect in land scam, say police

JAKARTA (JP): The police have found indications of the
commission of a crime in an alleged land scam linked to House of
Representatives Speaker and Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung,
National Police Spokesman Brig. Gen. Didi Widayadi said on
Wednesday.

"Although he (Akbar) has not been summoned yet, there is a
possibility of him being named a suspect in the case," Didi told
reporters.

He said the police had yet to receive the consent of President
Abdurrahman Wahid for the questioning of Akbar as required by
law. The request for presidential approval was submitted last
week, according to Didi.

Police have questioned three witnesses in the case, including
Akbar's nephew Kurnia Ananda who reported his uncle for allegedly
forging the land titles to 23 hectares of land in Srengseng,
Kebun Jeruk, West Jakarta in 1995.

The land, owned by Akbar's elder brother Dato Usman
Zahiruddin, was sold to, among other purchasers, the city
administration for conversion into a public park.

Former Kebun Jeruk district chief executive and subsequently
West Jakarta mayor Sutardjianto has already been named a suspect
in the case.

Kurnia, who is Zahiruddin's son, told the police that he and
his brothers once met with Akbar, whose full name is Akbar
Djandji Zahiruddin Tandjung, when the latter was minister of
public housing, at his official residence on Jl. Widya Chandra,
South Jakarta in 1995.

According to Kurnia, Akbar offered to return the proceeds from
the sale of the land based on a price of Rp 50,000 per square
meter, but Zahiruddin's sons refused the offer and instead
demanded Rp 500,000 per square meter as the market price of the
land had reached Rp 1 million per square meter by that time.

Kurnia reported the case to the police last year, but received
an unsatisfactory response. Last month he turned to the National
Ombudsman Commission, which then recommended that the police
investigate the case.

Innocence

Separately, Akbar's lawyer Atmajaya Salim insisted that his
client was innocent and said that the lawsuit was already
statute-barred.

Atmajaya, from the Soekanto-Salim and Associates law firm,
told the media that the land dispute took place between 1983 and
1994 and an action brought by the heirs of Zahiruddin had been
thrown out by the South Jakarta District Court and the Jakarta
High Court.

"Over the period of the dispute, my client was merely a member
of the administrative staff of the family company Marison NV,
where he had been since 1978. He didn't have the authority to
decide on the acquisition of the land.

"Moreover, by law, a cause of action becomes statute-barred
after a period of 12 years has elapsed. However, if the plaintiff
insists on filing a lawsuit, he should address it to Marison NV,
not my client," Atmajaya asserted.

Atmajaya said Marison NV had yet to obtain the land title
documents as the firm had canceled the purchase of the land in
1974 due to financial problems following the death of the
company's director Usman Zahiruddin.

The company only had made a down payment for 10 hectares of
the land.

In March 1984, Bob Sugiarto, a contractor named by the city
government to acquire the land for a city park, reimbursed the
down payment.

Atmajaya claimed that Usman's heirs were not informed about
the purchase of the land by the city administration as they were
not on Marison NV's board of directors, although they were the
shareholders.

"However, there is a clause in the agreement between Marison
NV and Usman's heirs that all assets under their names belong to
the company so that decisions about the assets are up to the
directors," he added. (02/bby/jun)