Expert brought in to help with BNI case

Expert brought in to help with BNI case

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police have enlisted two prominent legal experts to back up their
allegation businessman Adrian Woworuntu was involved a high-
profile Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million) financial scandal
involving state Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI).

Police chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Suyitno Landung Soedjono
said on Friday the police had asked Harkristuti Harkrisnowo and
Andi Hamzah from the University of Indonesia to act as their
expert witnesses on criminal law.

"This is only a technical matter. We already have several
pieces of legal evidence, including several documents, and other
expert witnesses to strengthen our case," Landung said.

Suyitno said police would hold a meeting with the prosecutors
to review the progress of the investigation and discuss flaws in
the existing dossier on Adrian.

"We will discuss the inadequacies in the dossier, and
hopefully, we will be able to include all the materials required
by (prosecutors) next week," Suyitno said.

The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office earlier returned Adrian's
dossier on the grounds police had failed to build a strong case
against Adrian, a key suspect in the scandal.

Marwan Effendi, the assistant for special crimes at the
Jakarta Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday the case file
submitted by the police was not strong enough to indict Adrian
for breaking Article 2 of Law No. 31/1999 on corruption
eradication and Article 3 of Law No. 15/2002 on money laundering.

Marwan said there were no documents proving the existence of
any money transactions, nor any documents with Adrian's signature
on them to support articles 55 and 56 on criminal law about
aiding and abetting a crime.

Suyitno, however, argued the police already had enough
documents for evidence. "We already have such documents -- for
example, there is a document which mentions the participation of
the suspect. All we need now is for the expert witnesses to
strengthen this evidence," he said.

Adrian is the co-owner of Gramarindo, a business group that
reportedly received Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million) from
publicly listed BNI with 41 fake letters of credit issued by some
foreign banks. The other owner, Maria Paulien Lumowa, is still at
large.

The police arrested Adrian on Nov. 18, last year for
questioning after hunting him for a month.

They were forced to release him on Friday last week because
they had failed to complete the case file required for Adrian's
indictment before the maximum legal detention period of 120 days
was up.

"Today we plan to hold a meeting with the prosecutors to
review the investigation progress and discuss the flaws in the
dossier. Hopefully, we will complete it by next week," said
Suyitno.

There is rising concern Adrian may try to escape from the
legal action against him and flee the country once the travel ban
imposed on him lapses on April 19.

"Travel bans can be extended and we will extend his travel ban
to anticipate such an action," Suyitno said.