City officials to be freed from Ancol charges

JAKARTA (JP): City officials are likely to be freed from charges that they were involved in a controversial foreign trip - dubbed the Ancol scandal - as no witness has testified against them, the Jakarta Prosecutors Office intelligence chief, R.J. Soehandoyo, said on Monday.

"So far no witness has testified against them, though we have yet to make a final conclusion," Soehandyo told reporters.

Hopefully, the final evaluation of the case can be completed by the end of this month, he said, adding that suspects could then be named.

He said the prosecutors' office had so far focused its investigation on three councillors who allegedly received travel allowances but canceled participation in the trip.

"In our final evaluation, it is likely that the number of suspects could be more than three people," he said.

Some 45 people, including 11 city officials and 16 councillors joined comparative study trips to Australia, Japan and South Africa in October last year.

They reportedly received travel allowances of between US$5,000 and $10,000 from City Council-owned developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, as well as Rp 52 million each from the city budget

Three councillors who reportedly received the allowances but did not join the trip were the City Council deputy chairman, Tarmidi Soehardjo, and Tarmidi Edy Soewarno, both from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Ali Imran Husein from the United Development Party.

All of them claimed to have returned the money when they decided to cancel the trip.

Tarmidi Soehardjo, who is also chairman of PDI Perjuangan's city branch, said earlier that he canceled because he needed to attend Party meetings.

Tarmidi Edy and Ali Imran both claimed that they were sick at the time.

City Governor Sutiyoso has issued administrative sanctions to his nine officials but failed to punish two senior officials, the head of the City Development Agency, Bambang Sungkono, and the chief of the City Planning Agency, Ahmaddin Ahmad, for joining the trip without his approval.

City councillors have deplored the governor for only punishing lower level officials.

Sutiyoso earlier promised to issue sanctions to Bambang and Ahmaddin if the prosecutors office found the two senior officials guilty of involvement in the case. (jun)