Judge wants President in court

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court wants President Abdurrahman Wahid to appear as a witness in the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) scandal.

During the hearing on Tuesday, presiding Judge Lalu Mariyun refused to allow the President's affidavit to be read by prosecutor Nulis Sembiring and gave the latter a deadline to bring Gus Dur, the President's popular name, to the hearing by Nov. 28 at the latest.

"If you cannot summon the President next Tuesday, I'll give you another 14 days to get him to appear in this court as a witness in the scandal," Lalu told the hearing on Tuesday.

"At least you should deliver the summons within 14 days. Should the President fail to come, I'm sure he'll provide the official reasons."

The President is currently in Doha attending the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit and is due back home on Thursday.

The scandal revolves around Rp 35 billion embezzled from Bulog's employee-owned foundation, Yanatera, allegedly by former Bulog deputy chief, defendant Sapuan.

Sapuan earlier said he took the funds for Suwondo, who he thought was acting on behalf of the President.

Nulis was about to read the President's sworn affidavit but the judges and Sapuan's defense lawyers disagreed on the matter.

Lalu responded: "Why do you seem reluctant (to present Gus Dur at court)? Just deliver the summons... If he really can't come, then we'll have his affidavit read in court."

Nulis was left with reading the sworn affidavit of Rahardi Ramelan, former minister of industry and trade who served as Bulog chief from September 1998 to October 1999.

In his affidavit, Rahardi said that he was acquainted with Sapuan when he was still Bulog chief, and Sapuan was secretary to former minister of agriculture, AM Syaifuddin.

When Sapuan was Bulog deputy chief, the chief was Jusuf Kalla.

According to Yanatera regulations, Rahardi said, "... to withdraw more than Rp 500 million from Yanatera, a written permit from the founder of Yanatera is required. In this case, the permit should come from the Bulog chief."

The Rp 35 billion funds were handed over by Sapuan to Suwondo in four Bank Bukopin bearer checks.

While Suwondo kept a Rp 10 billion check, the remaining funds ended up in three separate pairs of hands.

A Rp 5 billion check ended up in the BCA account of Semarang- based businesswoman Siti Farikha, who has family links with the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), while a Rp 15 billion check ended up in the Citibank account of legislator Suko Sudarso, of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

The remaining Rp 5 billion check is reportedly with Leo Purnomo, a suspect still at large.

In a police dossier dated June 6, made available to the press last week, Sapuan told officers that to confirm what Suwondo had told him, he had asked Abdurrahman about the matter in a meeting with the President on Jan. 7.

"I asked Gus Dur whether he needed Rp 200 billion of Bulog's non-budgetary funds for humanitarian aid. He said yes, he needed 50 percent of the Rp 370 billion of Bulog's non-budgetary funds, to be used for humanitarian aid, via non-governmental organizations," Sapuan was quoted as saying in the dossiers.

"I told him he needed to issue a decree on the matter. He did not comment... he ended the conversation there."

In a telephone conversation later in the day, he said he reported the entire exchange to his superior, Jusuf.

"Jusuf told me that President Gus Dur had asked the same amount of money, from him." (ylt)