Ginandjar may join Akbar in jail soon

Ginandjar may join Akbar in jail soon

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Another Golkar heavyweight may soon have to face the music for
past graft and corruption practices.

The Supreme Court overruled on Wednesday a lower court ruling
which was in favor of corruption suspect and Golkar leader
Ginandjar Kartasasmita, and urged state prosecutors to resume
investigations into his alleged graft.

"A hearing by a panel of justices on Wednesday afternoon
decided to accept an appeal filed by the Attorney General's
Office and revoke an earlier verdict by the South Jakarta
District Court that Ginandjar's detention was unlawful," Supreme
Court secretary general Gunanto Soeryono said in a press
conference here on Thursday.

The Supreme Court's announcement came on the very same day the
Attorney General's Office detained Golkar Chairman Akbar
Tandjung, who is also speaker of the House of Representatives, a
suspect in a Rp 40 billion (US$4 million) financial scandal
involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

Prosecuting big-time corrupters, who are mostly Golkar
politicians and Soeharto's family members and their cronies, has
proven to be a formidable task even after four years under the
reform movement.

Ginandjar, a three-star Air Force Marshall (retired), had been
declared a corruption suspect in connection with a technical
assistance contract he endorsed between privately-run PT
Ultraindo Petro Gas and state-owned oil company Pertamina which
caused US$24.8 million losses to the state, while he was a
Cabinet minister.

He was detained by the Attorney General's Office in April 2001
but released shortly after the South Jakarta District Court ruled
that his detention, was unlawful on the grounds that Ginandjar,
who is also deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly,
was an active military officer when the alleged corruption took
place between 1992 and 1995 and thus should had been investigated
by a joint military-civilian court.

The Attorney General's Office appealed the verdict to the
Supreme Court, which ruled on Wednesday that Ginandjar's
detention was lawful since it was done "consistent with the Anti
Corruption Law No. 3, 1971". The ruling may land Ginandjar in
jail again.

Law No. 3, 1971 stipulates that the Attorney General's Office
is the leader and coordinator of investigation teams probing
corruption committed by those subjected to public court and
system of law.