'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.