Defendant denies plotting to defraud Bank Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): A Bank Indonesia employee, charged with fraud, told the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday he objected to the prosecutors' indictment last week because he had never plotted to defraud the central bank as accused.

Reading his own statement due to the absence of his defense lawyers, Ayub Sutarya said all he had done was give his password to Naman Kawi, a colleague. The latter is the head of Bank Indonesia's cashiers' section.

Naman, who allegedly used the password to defraud the bank, is being tried in another session at the same court for his role in the scandal.

Ayub and Naman and other four accomplishes were charged with forging transfer documents of the central bank worth Rp 7 billion (US$2.9 million).

"Except for Naman, I did not know the other defendants before," said Ayub.

He said he did not expect anything from Naman when he gave him his password and nor was he promised a reward.

According to the defendant, there was nothing wrong with his action because his password was known to his colleagues.

However, Ayub admitted he had received Rp 250 million from Naman although he did not understand the meaning of the gift.

Meanwhile the lawyers for another defendant told the court the indictment against their client was invalid according to law.

They urged the court to drop the case because of misconduct in the investigation procedures. Nasran Amar, their client, also an employee of the central bank, was investigated by police instead of by the attorney general's office as the Law on Corruption says he should have been.

They also said the indictment was vague because the prosecutors seemed not to know which law to apply on the case.

Instead of addressing Nasran's alleged involvement in the fraud, the indictment describes other people's roles in the alleged scandal, they said.

"This means the indictment is invalid according to law." Lawyer Mohammad Masruri added. (13)