Govt wants speedier probe on land swindle near airport

TANGERANG (JP): The Attorney General's office strongly urged local prosecutors to speed up a probe against alleged corruption of top officials in the 1981 acquisition of 13 hectares of land worth Rp 14 billion, which was supposed to be part of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport project development.

After visiting the Tangerang Prosecutors Office on Thursday, Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Anton Sujata, told the media that the government and the public wanted local prosecutors to unravel the case as quickly as possible and expose the corrupt officials behind the acquisition of the land, which is now the Adhiloka housing complex.

"We strongly hope this case can be solved as soon as possible. Those found guilty later, whoever they are, should be brought to the court for trial," Sujata said.

The 13-hectares of land near the airport is part of 20 hectares labeled missing from the 115-hectare development project for the international airport.

The scandal surfaced when the airport complex was remeasured several years ago and officials found that it was only 95 hectares even though the central government had paid for the acquisition of 115 hectares.

The case of the missing 20 hectares become clearer when state prosecutors arrested a land broker, Surya Miharja, alias Koko, for collaborating with allegedly corrupt officials and embezzling Rp 44 billion in state money.

A subsequent investigation found that three hectares of the land acquired by the government for the airport development was unaccounted for, four hectares were located outside the area designated for the project and the remaining 13 hectares had been developed into a housing complex.

In July, head of the special crimes department in the Tangerang Prosecutors Office, Suhaemi, vowed to summon several former senior officials, most of whom had already retired, for questioning about the scam.

He gave no names but it is widely understood that members of the government committee who handled the land acquisition for the airport included former Tangerang regent Tadjus Sobirin, former Batuceper district chief Marwata and former Tangerang land affairs office head Hanafiah.

When asked to comment on Sujata's call Thursday, Suhaemi refused to reveal his plan, but said that he needed to take great care in the handling of the case.

"The most important thing is how to recover the states asset in the form of 13-hectares of land or equivalent to Rp 42 billion worth of land," Suhaemi said. (24/bsr)