I'm not scared, President says over Suwondo's arrest

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid said on Monday that the arrest of his masseur, Alip Agung Suwondo, a suspect in the multi-billion rupiah State Logistics Agency (Bulog) scandal, left him with no fear at all.

"It's none of my business. Whether there's evidence or not, let the law take its course. I'm not scared," Abdurrahman told journalists at his office.

The scandal, initially disclosed by the media in May, revolves around the disbursement of Rp 35 billion (US$4,2 million) from Bulog's employee-owned Yanatera foundation last January, allegedly at the behest of Abdurrahman.

Separately, Suwondo, who was arrested on Saturday after spending months in hiding, insisted on Monday that he received the funds simply as a loan from the agency's employee foundation, Yanatera.

The masseur, spotted by police at one of his villas in the mountainous resort of Puncak also asserted that Gus Dur, as the President is popularly known, played no role at all in the case.

"He (Suwondo) said he never used Gus Dur's name (to get the money)," Suwondo's family lawyer, Denny Azani B. Latief, told reporters after a visit to his client at the Jakarta Police Headquarters.

Denny further quoted his client as saying that he had taken the money from Yanatera simply as a loan.

Based on the deal signed by both his client and Bulog's deputy chairman Sapuan, Suwondo had indeed paid the loan's interest to the foundation.

"Suwondo had no idea that the matter (his loan to Yanatera) would develop this far. He became terrified and disappeared to find out what was going on," Denny said.

Together with Gus Dur, Suwondo is a founder of the Awair airline company.

Sapuan is already on trial in connection with the scam.

Head of the South Jakarta Prosecutors' Office Antasari Azhar said on Monday that the prosecutors planned to present Suwondo at the trial of Sapuan to stand as a witness.

"If we find any obstacles in verifying the evidence related to the case, then we'll ask the South Jakarta District Court to hear Suwondo as a witness," he told journalists at his office.

Antasari refused to reveal more details and merely said: "Let's see tomorrow".

The district court planned to hold a hearing on Sapuan's case on Tuesday in which former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan is to give his testimony.

In the initial hearing of the trial, Sapua claimed that Suwondo had acted on the President's behalf, after Gus Dur held a meeting with Sapuan to request that Bulog participate in a humanitarian program for the strife-torn province of Aceh.

Suwondo reportedly kept Rp 10 billion for himself, and distributed another Rp 5 billion to businesswoman Siti Farika, who has family links with the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim organization, once chaired by Gus Dur.

Another Rp 15 billion went to a bank account of Suko Sudarso, an official of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), and Rp 5 billion went to Leo Purnomo, a staff member at Awair.

So far, only Rp 16.5 billion has been returned to Yanatera including the funds returned by Suwondo's wife Teti Nursetiati and Farika.

Teti on Monday got permission from the police to visit her husband at the police detention center. Shortly after his arrest, police officers insisted that Suwondo had asked the police not to allow anyone to see him since he was still confused.

Police also said that they had yet to question Suwondo since the 43 year old man was showing signs of a depression-related neurosis.

On Monday, a team of doctors from the National Police Headquarters assigned to check on Suwondo's health concluded that the patient was physically and mentally fit.

"He could answer our questions well and wasn't showing any signs of stress," said Sr. Supt. Budiarto, one of the senior police doctors.

A day earlier, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf said Suwondo had been saying strange things including that he had traveled hundreds of kilometers on foot from Bogor to the Southern Java Sea, and then to Parangtritis beach near Yogyakarta. According to police reports, Suwondo said he had found a huge cave at the beach where he meditated for three days, surviving on food left by the cave's visitors. (byg/jaw/07/bby)