Graft convict on the run, still not declared fugitive

Tertiana ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a fruitless one-month search for corruption convict David Nusa Wijaya, the Attorney General's Office has still not declared him a fugitive.

Office spokesman Barman Zahir said Friday that they would send a summons to his home in Jakarta, Antara reported. He did not mention when the summons would be issued.

David, director of the now-defunct Bank Servitia, was sentenced to one year in prison by the West Jakarta District Court last March for misusing Rp 1.3 trillion of the state's emergency bank loans disbursed in 1999.

Soon after the case was brought to court, the panel of judges presided over by PA Sianipar, David was released from detention because the court allowed his request to postpone detention.

Despite the guilty verdict, the court did not order David to immediately go to jail.

The Jakarta High Court, in response to the prosecutors' appeal, ruled on May 20 that David must be sent to jail.

But it turned out that David had fled his residence in Mampang, South Jakarta.

The prosecutors have asked the police for help in the search.

The Institution for Research and Advocacy for Independent Judiciary (LeIP) criticized the West Jakarta District Court judges who released David from detention.

"We urge the Supreme Court to examine the lower court's decision on the suspension of David's detention as well as the lenient ruling," LeIP's executive secretary Rifqi S. Assegaf said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.

He also called for the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), which allows prosecutors or judges to use subjective considerations in deciding whether a suspect or convict should be put in prison.

Legal expert Bambang Widjojanto added that since corruption has been categorized as an extraordinary crime, the judges should not use common procedures when handling such cases.

"Especially because it is been common knowledge that corruptors use health problems as an escape from prosecution and, if they are imprisoned, they can escape as well," he told the Post.