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.