Depok mayor quizzed for 7 hours

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Depok Mayor Badrul Kamal was questioned on Thursday for about seven hours at the Jakarta Police Headquarters in connection with an investigation into the misappropriation of Rp 9 billion (US$1 million) of the Depok Legislative Council budget in 2002 involving 45 former Depok council members.

Badrul arrived at the special crime directorate at the Jakarta Police Headquarters at about 10 a.m.

"We questioned him as a witness, not a suspect," special crimes detective chief Sr. Comr. Edmon Ilyas said.

Badrul, who was mayor in 2002, approved the budget.

"We need information from him to understand the process involved in the budget approval," Edmon added.

The police had been planning to summon Badrul since September, pending approval from then president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent the approval letter for the questioning of the mayor to the National Police on Oct. 30, which later forwarded it to the Jakarta Police on Nov. 5.

So far the police have named 22 former councillors who served on the council in the 1999-2004 period as suspects in the case and have detained 19 of them.

After one month in detention, the police released them and placed them under city arrest.

The remaining three suspects were not in police custody because one of them, Manahan Erwin Limbong, was recovering from a stroke, while two others were military officers and they demanded that they be questioned only by the military police.

According to Edmon, as the suspects are under city arrest they are prohibited from leaving Depok without police consent except on Thursdays when they have to report to the Jakarta Police Headquarters.

The councillors were reported to the police in early August. The sources revealed that each of the 45 councillors had allegedly misused at least Rp 83 million of the council budget for their personal use.

Police said they now had enough evidence to submit the case to the prosecutors.