Attorney General's Office names four new suspects in Kalbar IUP irregularities case

The Attorney General’s Office (Kejaksaan Agung) has named four new suspects in the case of alleged corruption in the management of mining permits (IUP) for PT QSS in West Kalimantan Province for 2017–2025. The Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General’s Office, Anang Supriatna, in a statement in Jakarta on Saturday, said the four suspects are: - Suspect YA, as Commissioner of PT QSS - Suspect IA, as Permit Consultant for PT QSS and Director of PT BMU - Suspect HSFD, as a state administrator (Mining Analyst in the Directorate of Mineral Exploitation Guidance, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources - ESDM) - Suspect AP, as Director of PT QSS Regarding the roles of the four, he explained that initially PT QSS, engaged in bauxite mining, was acquired by SDT, which had previously been named as a suspect, together with suspect YA as commissioner of PT QSS. The company had an Exploration IUP based on Governor of West Kalimantan Decree Number: 210/DISTAMBEN/2016 dated April 7, 2016. When PT QSS had obtained a Production Operation IUP and a Work Plan and Budget (RKAB), it was legally evident that the bauxite mining activity did not take place in PT QSS’s IUP area. However, PT QSS continued to sell bauxite obtained from purchases outside the company’s area illegally. “The purchase of the bauxite was then exported using IUP OP, RKAB, and export approval recommendations belonging to PT QSS,” Anang added. “As a result of selling bauxite not originating from mining within PT QSS’s IUP area and the abuse of licensing documents to ship bauxite illegally, the state finances suffered losses,” Anang said. The four suspects are charged under Articles 603 and 604 of Law Number 1 of 2023 on the Penal Code. For further proceedings, suspects AP, YA, and IA will be detained for 20 days at Salemba Detention House, a branch of the Attorney General’s Office, starting Friday (22/5). Meanwhile, suspects SDT and HSFD are held at Salemba Detention House, a branch of the Jakarta Selatan District Attorney’s Office. Earlier, the Attorney General’s Office had named SDT, the beneficial owner of PT QSS, as a suspect in this case.