Government drops charge against Sofyan

JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General's office on Tuesday dropped the graft charges against businessman Sofyan Wanandi, saying that it had no proof to support the allegation.

In a letter, a copy of which was distributed to the media, the team of investigators was ordered to stop the year-long investigation because there were not enough grounds to continue with the prosecution.

The letter was signed by officer Bisman Mannu on behalf of deputy attorney general for special crime.

Sofyan called a media gathering on Tuesday to announce the decision, in order to clear his name, that he was no longer a suspect in a criminal investigation or was wanted by Interpol.

The owner of the Gemala business group had been accused of misusing credit facilities totaling US$16 million which his companies obtained from state banks BRI, BBD and BNI.

He denied the allegation and accused then president B.J. Habibie of fabricating the charges for political reasons.

Sofyan failed to answer a series of summonses from the Attorney General's office as he had been living in the United States, officially on medical grounds. He was then declared a fugitive and the Habibie government had sought Interpol assistance.

On Tuesday, he admitted publicly for the first time that the real reason for his staying out of the country was because he feared that he would not receive a fair trial.

"I refused to come home last year because I was scared. But with the formation of the new government, the law seems to have been upheld properly," he said.

Sofyan returned to Indonesia on Oct. 22, two days after the election of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Asked whether the government's decision to drop the charges against him had something to do with his friendship with Abdurrahman, he said: "They (Attorney General's Office) did not know of my close relationship with the President," he contended. (04)