Govt sets up team to hunt Eddy Tansil

Govt sets up team to hunt Eddy Tansil

JAKARTA (JP): The government has set up an interministerial
investigation team to facilitate its efforts to track down
businessman Eddy Tansil, who escaped from the Cipinang
penitentiary last week.

"We're hoping the investigation team can immediately detect
Tansil's whereabouts and capture him," Minister of Justice Oetojo
Oesman told reporters after chairing the team's first meeting in
his office yesterday.

In addition, the government has also contacted the authorities
of all countries which Tansil might have chosen as his
destination, Oetojo said here yesterday.

The team consists of officials from the ministries of justice,
home affairs, foreign affairs and information, the Attorney
General's Office and the Armed Forces. Among the countries it has
contacted are Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Director for Supervision and Execution of the Directorate
General of Immigration Rahardi Suroprawiro said on a separate
occasion that his office had contacted a number of countries
where Tansil reportedly has a residence or a branch of his
companies.

The Indonesian immigration office in Singapore has tried to
locate Tansil's daughter Jennifer Tan, who attended a local
primary school there, Rahardi said. She was reportedly admitted
to a hospital on the day Tansil escaped from the prison.

"We checked 16 hospitals in Singapore, but found no patient
with that name," Rahardi said. He also said that Jennifer had
graduated from the primary school last December, but there was no
information about whether she was registered in a local junior
high school.

"Jennifer was still registered as a resident at her apartment,
but she was not in when our officials checked with the apartment
owner," he said.

Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key business group, was
serving his 20-year jail term for corruption when he literally
walked out of the Cipinang correctional institution last
Saturday. He was allegedly helped by officials inside the prison.

The 42-year old businessman was convicted in 1994 for
defrauding state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) of Rp
1.3 trillion (US$620 million).

Police said yesterday that more suspects, including fellow
prisoners, employees of the Cipinang prison and of the Harapan
Kita Cardiac Center hospital, in which Tansil had reportedly gone
for a medical check-up, will be questioned in connection with the
escape.

"Our investigation has significantly shown indications of
power abuse and a wide-scale conspiracy," city police spokesman
Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna said here yesterday. "For this reason, we
are insisting that the East Jakarta police question more people."

Police have found that a number of people had illegally
granted their approval on Tansil's forms of request for a medical
check-up.

Police have arrested 10 men so far, not 11 as mentioned
earlier, Iman said.

"We have incorrectly mentioned one suspect twice," Iman said,
adding that the number might increase.

In some of the preliminary investigations, the suspects
revealed that Tansil had on at least four occasions used
counterfeited medical-examination forms to leave the prison and
visit his family in Central Jakarta, Iman said.

Meanwhile, Tansil's escape continued to anger many people.
Legal expert Muladi and Moslem leader Amien Rais, of Semarang and
Yogyakarta respectively, agreed it tarnished the image of the
country's legal system.

Here in Jakarta, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja guaranteed that
the security officials would be able to capture Tansil if he was
still in Jakarta.

"I am sure Tansil will be captured. I have instructed all
neighborhood chiefs to keep watch," he said. (imn/bsr/har)