House wants legal action taken against President

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives officially handed over the special committee's report on the two financial scandals allegedly involving President Abdurrahman Wahid to the Attorney General and the National Police chief for legal processing.

The almost 50-centimeters-thick stack of statements from all of the witnesses heard by the special committee was formally submitted to Attorney General Marzuki Darusman and Police chief Gen. Suroyo Bimantoro in the House on Monday.

Along with the evidential documents, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung also handed over the memorandum of censure to senior state officials.

"We submitted the papers to the Attorney General and police chief as a follow-up action to the House plenary session... concerning violations of the law which should be processed further," Akbar said.

"It is our duty to provide these papers as we all know that the House has decided to take both political and legal action over the case," he added.

On Thursday, the House censured Abdurrahman for his alleged involvement in two financial scandals and agreed to issue a memorandum of censure that could serve as a precursor to the impeachment of the president.

The House also recommended that a legal process should be undertaken to follow up on suspicions of violations of the law in respect of the Rp 35-billion State Logistics Agency (Bulog) scandal and the Brunei scandal.

"The formal submission of the documents is part of the process of initiating legal proceedings following the plenary session, and we will now let the law enforcement agencies continue the process," Akbar said.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said that he would study the papers first before taking further steps to process the case.

"We have accepted the papers from the House and will follow up the case in accordance with the regulations," Marzuki said.

He underlined that the papers would be regarded as a complaint from the public and that his office would conduct the investigation, starting with the questioning of the members of the special committee as witnesses.

"So, I hope all the legislators from the special committee will cooperate and be willing to give us information whenever we need it," he stressed.

Marzuki further said that he would synchronize the results of his investigation with the ongoing court trial of former Bulog deputy chief Sapuan as the chief defendant in the Buloggate case.

"We will continue to use the findings of the court as the principal guide for us in conducting the investigation because the legal process is definitive while the political process in the House is tentative," he said.

"If we find new evidence in the committee's documents, then we will accept it, but if not then we will only consider this as additional information concerning the ongoing trial of the same case," he added.

When asked whether Abdurrahman should be suspended or arrested during the investigation process, Marzuki said there was no need for that as it would not present any difficulties for him to legally process an active state official.

"There is no law stipulating the arrest of a president during the investigation process," Marzuki said, adding that even Syahril Sabirin, the central bank governor, was not suspended during his investigation.

He said he would not have any psychological problems in investigating the case even though it concerned his superior, saying the case was related to Abdurrahman personally rather than to the presidency as an institution.

Gen. Suroyo Bimantoro said that he would handle the case in accordance with the regulations and would not be psychologically impeded in dealing with a case involving the President.

"No, we have to differentiate between the police as an institution subordinate to the president, and as a state institution," Bimantoro said.

"It would present problems for us if we were unable to handle the case properly," he remarked.

Meanwhile, Aris Junaidi, a businessman and a witness in the Bulog scandal, asserted that the President knew nothing about the disbursement of the Rp 35 billion from the National Logistics Agency foundation (Yanatera Bulog) and that former National Police chief Gen. Roesdihardjo's testimony on the President's involvement was untrue.

"The President knew nothing after he failed to get a bigger sum out of Bulog. The disbursement of the Rp 35 billion was an arrangement between the former Bulog deputy chief Sapuan and Suwondo, the President's former masseur," he said at a press conference here on Monday.

Aris, who admitted to having known the President since 1985 and Suwondo since 1990, said he had been given a clarification about the funds' disbursement from Suwondo when the latter was undergoing medical treatment at the National Police General Hospital in East Jakarta last month.

"During the meeting, he (Suwondo) told me that the President knew nothing about the funds and that he had borrowed the funds and would return them to Yanatera in Jan. 2001," he said, adding that Suwondo declined to reveal his motive in obtaining the loan.

Aris himself admitted to borrowing Rp 5 billion, a part of the Rp 35 billion Suwondo had obtained from Sapuan, and investing it in a logging company belonging to Siti Farikah, his business partner in Semarang, Central Java.

"Roesdihardjo's testimony that the President gave a Rp 5 billion cheque to Siti Farikah is not true," he said. (dja/rms)