'Fake diploma users tried to bribe lawyers'

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

At least five North Sumatra civil servants accused with 25 other civil servants and legislators of allegedly using fake university diplomas to advance their careers had attempted to bribe their way out of facing charges, a lawyer said on Saturday.

Lawyer Eddy Warman said that one of the five, currently holding a top job in the North Sumatra provincial administration, had offered him a Rp 100-million bribe to get the case withdrawn.

Warman, speaking at a seminar on educational crime in North Sumatra sponsored by the Medan Area University (UMA), said that he flatly rejected the offer. He did not say when the incident happened.

North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin vowed last month to dismiss civil servants found guilty of using fake university diplomas.

"If there are civil servants using bogus diplomas, we will remove them because it is a criminal act," he told The Jakarta Post in Medan, the provincial capital, on May 15.

It is not unusual for civil servants to further their studies after office hours but some buy their university diplomas.

Rizal said his administration was dealing with a number of local officials accused of using counterfeit diplomas to get higher positions.

As part of efforts to find those involved in the crime, the governor ordered a full-swing probe into civil servants who had allegedly used their academic documents to seek promotion.

Local police had arrested at least 12 people suspected of belonging to a syndicate producing counterfeit diplomas. Two of the suspects were lecturers from the UMA and Nomensen University, both based in Medan.

Warman said among the 30 suspected holders of bogus degrees he reported to the police were senior officials at the provincial and city administrations and legislators.

"One of them has even become head of a district in a certain regency," he said.

Warman added that based on the result of his investigation, the number of those using counterfeit UMA diplomas was actually more than the 30.

The lawyer said he promised to submit a longer list of suspects to the police soon.

Addressing the same seminar on Saturday, North Sumatra Police detective chief Sr. Comr. Iskandar Hasan said his office was processing the cases of 30 fake diploma users.

He said the dossiers of the 12 suspects charged with involvement in the syndicate had been handed over to the local prosecutor's office.

"By late June, the trial for the case will start," Iskandar said.

He added that he suspected the syndicate to have produced fake diplomas for people from North Sumatra, Aceh, Riau and Kalimantan.

An unnamed member of the Aceh Singkil district legislative council was among those suspected to have bought the bogus diplomas.