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