JP/4/newmont

Police finish questioning Newmont suspects

Abdul Khalik The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The say they have completed their questioning of all the suspects from PT Newmont Minahasa Raya charged with polluting Buyat Bay in South Minahasa, North Sulawesi, and will soon forward their case files to the prosecutors.

"We will hand over their files within a week to the North Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office," National Police director of special crimes Brig. Gen. Suharto said on Thursday.

He said the files on the six suspects, including Newmont president director Richard B. Ness, had been rounded off with explanations from environmental law expert Muladi.

"He (Muladi) said that Newmont could be charged with corporate crimes over the Buyat case," Suharto said.

He said all the suspects had been charged under Articles 41, 42, 43 and 46 of Law No. 23/1997, which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a Rp 1 billion fine.

Separately, Newmont lawyer Lutfi Yazid continued to press on Thursday for the release of his clients, saying they would continue to cooperate fully with the police investigation if released.

"We will always cooperate with the police. We have never tried to destroy or tamper with evidence. That's why we are asking the police to release our clients," he said.

Lutfi said Newmont had guaranteed that all five of its detained employees would make no effort to evade the legal process should they be freed.

But Suharto said the police would not release the suspects until after they had fully completed their case files.

The five Newmont employees -- American Bill Long, Australian Phil Turner and three Indonesians, David Sompie, Jerry Kojansow and Putra Jayatri -- have been detained at National Police Headquarters since last week.

Ness was briefly detained but released due to health concerns. He has been required to report twice a week to the police -- on Mondays and Thursdays.

Based on the Criminal Law Procedures Code, police can detain a a suspect for 20 days and extend the detention period for a further month if this is deemed necessary. Through his lawyer or family members, a suspect has the right to request his release on the local equivalent of bail. But it is up to the investigators whether to accept or reject the request.

A police source said that it was National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar who had ordered the release of Ness after the Newmont president produced a medical report from a doctor in Singapore showing he suffered from clogged arteries.

The source also said the police had obtained all the relevant documents regarding the company's operations and the disposal of its tailings, including an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) from the Office of the State Minister of the Environment.

"We have all the necessary documents for the case to go to trial. They (the suspects) have admitted that their ERA was rejected by the state minister for the environment," he claimed.

Meanwhile, parent company Newmont Mining Corp., the world's largest gold producer, said on Wednesday it was confident an independent probe would absolve it of any blame for pollution in Indonesia.

"We are anxiously awaiting for it obviously and will just wait to see what that has to say," company spokesman Doug Hock was quoted by AFP as saying in a telephone interview from Newmont's Colorado headquarters.

Hock was referring to a World Health Organization (WHO)-backed probe ordered by Jakarta last month into whether the company's local unit, Newmont Minahasa Raya, was linked to any arsenic or mercury poisoning as claimed by residents living around Buyat Bay.