Govt wants speedier probe on land swindle near airport
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)