Five prosecutors under investigation

Five prosecutors under investigation

JAKARTA (JP): In another blow to the Indonesian justice
system, the Attorney General's Office admitted on Wednesday that
five state prosecutors are suspected of taking a Rp 12 billion
bribe to conceal evidence.

The five are currently under investigation by the internal
affairs division at the Attorney General's Office in the graft
case involving the former finance manager of Jakarta-based PT
Aerowisata Catering Service.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman confirmed that an internal
investigation was underway and that the five were being
questioned.

"Yes it's true, but we're still awaiting further reports," he
said when asked about the investigation into the five prosecutors
who are still active at the office's directorate of special
crimes.

The graft case in which the five prosecutors were involved
centers on the alleged swindling of some Rp 28 billion from PT
Aerowisata's account by then finance manager Kosasih. Kosasih was
named a suspect in the case last year.

The Indonesia Reform Advocacy Institute (LARI) in a report
handed to the Attorney General's Office on Monday alleged that
the five prosecutors seized several of Kosasih's properties
earlier this year as evidence, despite its ownership being
registered under a different name.

The seized properties, worth some Rp 12 billion, comprise an
apartment in Sunter, East Jakarta, a plot of land in the
Pulogebang area, East Jakarta, an automobile showroom in
Tangerang with five Mercedes-Benz cars, Kosasih's own private car
and several of his houses located in Jakarta, Bogor and Bandung.

The report, signed by LARI chairman Edi Soemarsono, stated
that the prosecutors then sold off the evidence and divided the
spoils.

According to the report, Kosasih was also told to flee by the
prosecutors, thus hampering the case, since the suspect could not
be brought to court.

Edi claimed that part of the information in the report was
testimony from Kosasih's wife, Betty.

One of the five prosecutors being investigated, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, admitted that the "bribe" did take place
to impede the investigation.

However, he stressed that the seizure and eventual liquidation
of assets was only conducted by the head of the prosecutors team,
while the other four only signed the seizure notification.

"I only met Kosasih once during the first questioning...
Moreover, I never saw the seized properties and was never
involved in the seizure plan," he said.

During the investigation, Kosasih was obliged to report
regularly to the Attorney General's Office. But he has not
reported back since in July.

"He has never appeared here since then. From the report I
received, he was suffering a stroke."

A high-ranking official at the Attorney General's Office, who
also asked for his name to be withheld, said that the office had
suspected a scandal even before it received LARI's report.

"We have already issued a warrant for Kosasih and have also
asked the West Java's Prosecutor Office and the Bandung Police to
help us get him," he said. (01)