Councillors stand up bribery probe

Councillors stand up bribery probe

TANGERANG: The Banten prosecutor's office has started an
investigation into 19 Tangerang councillors for allegedly
accepting bribes from a mayoral candidate last year.

However, the three councillors summoned on Thursday -- council
speaker Gian Sugiharsono and Awing Suhanda of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Fauzie of the Golkar
Party -- failed to appear at the prosecutor's office.

Six other councillors had already been questioned last week.

Prosecutor Sutardjo said the office would continue to summon
the three, especially Gian, who has reportedly not appeared in
public since the mayoral election in November.

"The case involves 20 councillors, but one died of a heart
attack ahead of the election. We have reported the case to the
Attorney General's Office," he added.

The case was opened on the basis of reports filed by the
public, that the councillors had received Rp 100 million each to
vote for businessman Facrul Munir.

Munir lost the election to Wahidin Halim.

Earlier, Munir had retracted his police report against the
councillors after they promised to return the money. --JP