Bogor councillors fear detention

Bogor councillors fear detention

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The detention of Bogor deputy mayor Mochamad Sahid has made
reelected council members cringe over a possibility that they may
face a similar fate, as they had acknowledged the misuse of Rp
5.53 billion (US$605,033) of the Bogor Council's 2002 budget when
Sahid was speaker.

Council deputy speaker Iwan Suryawan of the Prosperous Justice
Party (PKS), who had served the 1999-2004 term as a councillor,
said the 2002 budget proposal had been deliberated with and
approved by the Bogor administration.

"We will cooperate with the investigation ... but we hope we
won't be sent to prison. I and other reelected council members
fear sharing the same fate with Pak Sahid. None of us have ever
been to prison," Iwan said on Friday, as the councillors awaited
summonses from the Bogor Prosecutor's Office to appear as
witnesses in the case.

"As a friend, I am sorry about what has happened to Pak Sahid,
but we have to respect the law and the presumption of innocence
principle. We are now relying on each other in facing the
investigation," Iwan said.

The prosecutor's office sent Sahid to Paledang Prison on
Thursday as a graft suspect.

"Pak Sahid is all right, he is in a Block A cell and his
family sent a mattress and pillow for him to sleep on," prison
guard J. Susilo told reporters.

The prison is overfilled with 1,278 inmates, while it has a
maximum capacity of 500.