Ismoko named suspects in Nurdin case

Ismoko named suspects in Nurdin case

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police have charged five officers as suspects on
charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice by
violating the rules set out in the Criminal Law Procedures Code
(KUHAP) when compiling the case file against corruption suspect
and politician Nurdin Halid.

The officers, including former fraud squad director Brig. Gen.
Samuel Ismoko, are now set to face disciplinary hearings.

Ismoko has already been detained on charges of abuse of power
when investigating a lending scandal at Bank Negara Indonesia
(BNI) that inflicted losses of around Rp 1.7 trillion (US$1.70
billion) on the taxpayer.

"The police investigators were negligent by not asking the
witnesses in Nurdin's case to make and to sign new statements,"
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Paulus Purwoko told a news
conference here on Tuesday.

Last week, the North Jakarta District Court rejected
prosecution charges that Nurdin had illegally imported some
70,000 tons of sugar, valued at Rp 3.41 billion, from Thailand in
2002.

The court said that the prosecution had failed to prove the
charges against Nurdin, the chairman of the Confederation of
Primary Cooperative Associations (Inkud) and also a Golkar
politician.

The court took into account the testimony of 19
witnesses, who said they had never been questioned about the case
and that their signatures on statements in the Nurdin case had
been copied from the file on another suspect, Abdul Waris Halid,
who is Nurdin's brother. Abdul Waris has already been acquitted
of all charges.

Following the verdict, the police's internal affairs division
quickly launched an investigation into the signatures and found
the five officers were responsible for the mistake.

However, Paulus said the police's internal affairs
investigators had not found any evidence that the signatures had
been forged.

He also said the police might commence another investigation
into the Nurdin case after he was acquitted by the North Jakarta
court.

Also on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes
Hendarman Supandji said his office was anxious to see the
National Police reopen the graft investigation into Nurdin.

Commenting on the Nurdin case, Chief Justice Bagir Manan said
the court had not actually acquitted Nurdin but merely rejected
the manner in which the charges had been framed. Thus, Nurdin
could still face a new trial.

Separately, Ismoko's lawyer Juniver Girsang denied that the
five police suspects, including his client, had done anything
wrong when compiling the case files against Nurdin and Abdul
Waris. It was merely a "technical glitch", he claimed.

"The two files were initially compiled as one but this was
later split into two by the prosecution. The question is why they
did not check and review the case files once they received them,"
Juniver said.

According to Juniver, it was Ismoko who first arrested and
brought Nurdin to court. Thus, it was highly improbable that his
client would want to see Nurdin acquitted.

In June, Nurdin was acquitted by the South Jakarta District
Court on charges of misusing Rp 169 billion supplied by the State
Logistics Agency.

He has also appealed against another North Jakarta District
Court verdict last August that sentenced him to a two-and-a-half-
year jail term for smuggling 59,100 tons of rice from Vietnam.