Buyat suspects released, put under city arrest
Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police suddenly released the five suspects in the Buyat case on Saturday after PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) embarked on a media campaign to secure their freedom.
The director of the National Police's special crimes division, Brig. Gen. Suharto, said the five Newmont officers -- American Bill Long, Australian Phil Turner and three Indonesians, David Sompie, Jerry Kojansow and Putra Jayatri -- had now been placed under city arrest and were required to report to the police periodically.
The decision came after Newmont embarked on week-long media campaign that culminated in the publication of an open letter to National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bahctiar in a number of national newspapers.
"We are writing to you to request your mercy to release our friends from police detention. We and our families guarantee that they will continue to cooperate with (the) investigation as they have demonstrated to date," said the letter signed by, among other people, representatives of NMR's trade union.
The police have accused Newmont of contaminating Buyat bay in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, where the mining company disposed of its tailings, and named six senior Newmont officers as suspects, including NMR President Director Richard B. Ness, an American.
The five were detained immediately after they were named suspects almost four weeks ago, while Ness was released for health reasons.
Up to Saturday, Newmont's lawyers had been trying in vain to secure their release, with police investigators insisting that they would remain in detention pending the acceptance of their case files by the North Sulawesi prosecutor's office.
The prosecutor's office rejected the files last week and asked investigators to complete them as soon as possible.
Suharto said on Saturday that the decision to release the five was based on the fact that the files had now been completed.
"The other reason was requests from their families, the North Sulawesi governor and the head of the mining and energy department's legal affairs section," Suharto told reporters after a meeting with the suspects' lawyers.
One of the lawyers, Palmer Situmorang, welcomed the release of the detainees.
"Under city arrest, they must report to the police in North Sulawesi," Palmer said.
Investigations into the alleged contamination of Buyat bay have yielded different conclusions. Laboratory tests sponsored by Newmont and the Office of the State Minister of the Environment concluded that the bay was not contaminated. Meanwhile, laboratory tests by police investigators and the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Indonesia suggested that the bay was contaminated by mercury and arsenic.
A joint team including government officials, police investigators and environmental activists, has yet to release the results of their investigation.
Meanwhile, Hinca Panjaitan, a member of the Press Council, criticized media outlets that published Newmont's ads without inserting the word "advertorial" above them.
"It's completely misleading and unethical, particularly when the case is still under investigation. One of the ads is said to be an open letter. Media outlets should have put it in the letters section instead of on a separate full page," he said.
Hinca also said that advertorials should not quote other sources, particularly illegitimate ones, in an effort to sway public opinion.