Jail guard denies police report over car bribe

JAKARTA (JP): A senior prison guard being tried over his involvement in businessman Eddy Tansil's escape denied yesterday in court a police report he was promised a Kijang van for masterminding the businessman's escape.

The defendant, identified only as DD, said: "What was written in the dossier, that Tansil had promised me a van, was the police interrogator's mistake."

Judge Tarbin of the East Jakarta District Court examined to what extent the defendant was involved in Tansil's escape. He repeatedly asked why the police dossier contained an admission that he was promised a Kijang van if it was not true.

The 44-year-old defendant looked abashed and kept silent after the judge grilled him.

The defendant said he received Rp 2 million (US$850), which he distributed to eight of his subordinates.

He admitted keeping Rp 200,000.

The defendant said Tansil gave him the money when he brought the businessman to the Cipinang penitentiary warders' housing complex, where the defendant lived.

On the defendant's order, Tansil was escorted by prison guard Suwarno, whom the court has sentenced to two years in jail, to Plaza Gadjahmada, Central Jakarta, before the businessman escaped in May.

Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key Group, was convicted of swindling Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million) out the state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia, which nearly bankrupt it. He was in the second year of a 20-year jail term. Tansil is still at large and is believed to have fled the country.

Judge Tarbin challenged the defendant: "Why did you let Tansil go out of the prison when you knew it should not have happened that way?"

The defendant stammeringly admitted he let Tansil leave the prison two days before he was due to leave for a medical check- up, because he thought Tansil would return to prison.

However, the defendant, who was in charge of 44 guards, said he was mobbed by about dozen police officers during the interrogation.

"While in police custody, they slapped me on the cheeks and ears," the defendant said.

The defendant said other suspects were also beaten by police.

He showed scars on his shins which he said came from police kicking him with pointed shoes.

He said he was accompanied by his former lawyer, whom he said did nothing upon seeing the police's interrogation tactics.

Defense lawyer Daniel Panjaitan said the lawyers team from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute accepted the defendant's representation only a week before the trial began last month.

The case has been adjourned until Wednesday so the presiding judge, Soenarto, can go to the prison. (07)