Businessman wants police to investigate assault

Businessman wants police to investigate assault

JAKARTA (JP): A businessman has asked the police to
immediately summon for questioning three executives of Panin Bank
whom he believes were involved in his being kidnapped and beaten
last month.

The businessman is Sulaiman Iskandar Ramli, better known as
Han Seng, and he is being represented by lawyer Bambang Hartono
of the law firm Rudy Lontoh & Associates.

Bambang identified the three Panin's bank officials as Vice
President Gunawan, Account Officer Lie Mei Lin and Director
Chalid Latief.

The lawyer said he also wanted the police to summon Haryanto
Latief, Mei Lin's brother who -- according to Han Seng -- is the
one who actually received a disputed loan worth Rp 3.6 billion
(US$1.6 million) from the bank, which he says is what lay behind
the beating.

The alleged kidnapping and beating of Han Seng by a group of
about 20 people, including a police officer, is said to have
taken place at his house on May 12. It was apparently intended to
extract repayment of a debt which a private bank claims the
businessman owes to it.

Han Seng claimed that the group came to his house at 11 p.m.
and proceeded to hit and kick him. He said the men then dragged
him to a van where the police officer, whom he identified as Lt.
Col. Alfon from the Economic Crime Investigation Directorate of
the National Police Headquarters, was waiting.

According to Han Seng, the men continued to abuse him in the
parking area of the Satria Mandala military museum on Jl. Gatot
Subroto, South Jakarta.

Han Seng said that the men had warned him not to report the
incident to the police.

Several days after the incident, Han Seng, through his lawyer
Bambang, reported the case to city detectives, who later
questioned a number of the bank's executives.

Early in June Crime Investigation Directorate Secretary Lt.
Col. Primanto announced that the city police had detained "more
than one" suspect in connection with case but refused to give
details.

Primanto neither confirmed nor denied the rumor, circulating
widely, that police and military personnel were involved in the
incident.

According to Han Seng, the incident had something to do with a
Rp 3.6 billion loan from the Panin Bank in 1990.

He said that the money had actually been borrowed by an
acquaintance of his who worked at the bank, Lie Mei Lin. He said
that his name, rather than Lie Mei Lin's, had been used in the
loan transaction because the bank's regulations did not permit an
employee to apply for a loan.

He said that under an agreement between the two, Han Seng
obtained the Rp 3.6 million loan from the bank but later gave the
money to Lay Mei Lin, who then handed it over to her brother,
Hariyanto Latief, who agreed to repay the money to the bank.

Three years later, Han Seng said, the bank asked him to repay
the loan. Han Seng then told Latief, who had used the money to
import luxury cars, to repay the money to the bank. But Latief
declared himself bankrupt.

On the basis of the loan agreement, the bank kept asking Han
Seng to repay the loan and, finally, hired debt collectors to
exert pressure on him.

Amir Syamsuddin, lawyer for one of the executives, said
recently that Panin Bank knew nothing about documents other than
the loan agreement between the Panin Bank, the creditor, and Han
Seng, the debtor.

The lawyer also denied that Mei Lin was an officer of the
bank. Further, Amir denied that the bank had been involved in the
kidnapping and beating of Han Seng, although he conceded that
Panin Bank did routinely hire people to encourage debtors to
repay their loans.

"But, if those people coerce and beat the debtors it is not
our responsibility, because our agreement with them does not ask
them to do that," he said. (bsr)