'Illegal logging' police to face trial

'Illegal logging' police to face trial

Nethy Dharma Somba and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post/Jayapura/Yogyakarta

Five police officers allegedly involved in illegal logging in
Sorong, Papua, arrived on Monday in Jayapura and will be handed
over soon to the Papua Prosecutor's Office for investigations.

Three of the officers, escorted by a senior police officer
from National Police headquarters, came to Jayapura from Jakarta,
while two others came without escorts from Manokwari, Papua and
Makassar, South Sulawesi province.

The three officers in question were former Sorong police chief
Adj. Sr. Comr. Faisal AN, former deputy chief of Sorong police
Adj. Sr. Comr. I Putu Mahesa, former Sorong detective chief of
operations First Inspector Anshar Djohar, and Second Inspector
Widodo and Head Brigadier Aceng Ganda, both former Sorong
detectives. Another officer allegedly involved in the case was
former Sorong detective chief Adj. Comr. Taswin, who remains at
large and is on the wanted persons' list.

Upon arriving in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province,
Anshar was placed in detention at National Police headquarters.
Anshar was officially named a suspect.

The other four officers stayed a night at a hotel in the city,
before being questioned as witnesses in the case on Tuesday, said
the Director of Intelligence Sr. Comr. Mangisi Situmorang at
Papua police headquarters, who met with the police officers. The
four have not as yet been named suspects.

Faisal and his colleagues are charged with violating Article
263 of the criminal code on forgery, which carries a six-year
prison term, and also Article 221 on concealing evidence, which
can bring a six months term in prison.

Faisal was accused for giving misleading reports to his
superior about logs seized from the MV Africa on Jan. 15, 2002.

The Panama-registered MV Africa was earlier seized by Adj.
Comr. Kunto Aji from the Sorong water police unit and later
handed over to the Sorong police for further legal processing.

After the evidence had been handed over to the Sorong police,
it then disappeared, while Faisal, the Sorong police chief at
that time, reported to the Papua police chief that he was still
investigating the case.

The ship was loaded with about 12,000 cubic meters of merbau
wood and was owned by Felix Welianto, a timber businessman in
Sorong. Faisal was also charged for concealing evidence because
the MV Africa and its shipment of logs went missing.

Felix was detained by the Sorong police but was later released
because the data submitted by the Sorong police to the
prosecutor's office was insufficient to prove that the timber was
seized from the ship. The whereabouts of the MV Africa and a
Malaysian suspect involved in the case are still unknown.

Separately in Yogyakarta, the Minister of Forestry M.S. Ka'ban
said that since last week Indonesian authorities have confiscated
some 48,000 cubic meters of logs in East Kalimantan province
alone.

The large number of logs seized proved that the problem of
illegal logging in the province was extremely grave, said Ka'ban.