Antigraft activist named suspect over aid 'theft'
The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Jakarta
The Indonesian police named anticorruption activist Farid Faqih a suspect on Thursday for allegedly stealing donated items destined for tsunami victims in Aceh.
The police have also confiscated two trucks from him loaded with the donated food, medicine and computer equipment.
If convicted, Farid could be imprisoned up to seven years, said Brig. Gen. Soeharto, the chief of the special crimes division at the National Police headquarters.
Farid, the coordinator of Government Watch (GOWA) a non- governmental organization that acts as an anticorruption watchdog, was questioned by Banda Aceh police investigators after he was earlier detained and questioned by the Indonesian Air Force's military police officers on Wednesday.
"After the police investigation, he has officially been named a suspect," Soeharto told reporters in Banda Aceh.
According to military police sources, the relief materials arrived by plane at the Iskandar Muda air base in the Blang Bintang area just outside of Banda Aceh city at 1 p.m on Wednesday. The donations came from the military officers' wives association (Dharma Pertiwi) and were logged in and received by Capt. Suaib, a military medical officer, currently in Aceh.
After checking the aid containers on the tarmac of the air base, the military officer reported its arrival to the TNI's operational command on the base. After handing over the manifest, Suaib went back to the tarmac, but the containers were gone.
Suaib eventually discovered that the supplies had been loaded on to two trucks and taken to a warehouse.
Suaib and the soldiers with him became enraged after they realized that Farid, who is in Aceh along with other NGO activists, working in partnership with the UN's World Food Program, was responsible for taking the aid away. After an argument, Farid was beaten black and blue by the soldiers and detained at the Air Force's military police post. Farid was later sent to the Banda Aceh police headquarters for interrogation.
"The beating was unavoidable because the officers had been waiting to distribute the aid for two days," said Lt. Col. Sazili, the air base commander, as quoted by AFP.
In addition to Farid, Aceh police officers also questioned six volunteers from the Islamic Defender's Front (FPI), who helped Farid load the goods on to the trucks.
During the investigation, Farid maintained that he was innocent. He told the investigators that he intended to keep the goods at the warehouse just outside Banda Aceh to prevent damage from the rain, Indopos daily quoted the investigators as saying.
The arrest and beating of Farid has sparked an uproar among activists and non-governmental organizations in Jakarta.
Gowa Secretary General Andi Syahputra claimed that the arrest was politically motivated. He said that "certain parties" were upset that Farid had criticized the distribution of relief aid by the Indonesian military and the government, and that was what led to the violence and charges against him.
Student Movement Exponent 1997/1978, a group of former student activists, said that Farid had become a scapegoat to deflect the blame over the chaotic distribution of aid.
Separately, the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare, Alwi Shihab, said that he was not convinced that the activist was guilty of misappropriating aid for tsunami victims.
"Farid may have violated certain procedures, believing that he could bypass them given the emergency situation in Aceh, but the security authorities might have considered that a serious crime," Alwi said in Jakarta.