'Corruptors' move to Singapore

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A court rejected on Tuesday the indictment of two former bankers in absentia in a corruption trial and ordered the prosecutor to summon the defendants, who currently live in Singapore.

Presiding Judge Rukmini of the Central Jakarta District Court told prosecutor Arnold Angkouw to summon Bambang Sutrisno and Adrian Kiki Ariwan, the deputy commissioner and the president director of the now-defunct Bank Surya.

The defendants are charged with the misappropriation of Rp 1.9 trillion (about US$202 million) of the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support Fund in 1997.

After the hearing, Arnold told reporters he would send the summons again to both defendants through their homes in Jakarta, although the defendants' lawyers repeatedly said their clients now live in Singapore.

He insisted the court should try Bambang and Adrian in absentia to save time.

According to a circular of the Supreme Court, lawyers are not allowed to represent defendants tried in absentia for economic and corruption crimes.

But Bambang's lawyer R. Dwiyanto Prihartono, came to the court to follow the hearing outside the courtroom.

He gave reporters several documents, including his client's answers during a questioning by a prosecutor in Singapore in 1999 and several letters from the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore stating that Bambang has been living in Singapore since July, 1997.

Several legal observers had raised objections against the Attorney General's Office move to try in absentia several businessmen involved in BLBI violations, even though the government knows their addresses abroad.

The trials, they said, would not be effective because the government may not be able to summon the defendants and retrieve the money.