More difficult times await Hamid after Helsinki trip

More difficult times await Hamid after Helsinki trip

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Bandung

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin will have a
tough task ahead when he leads the government's negotiators in
peace talks with Acehnese leaders in Helsinki on Thursday.

But a more difficult time awaits him at home as he will face
questioning in connection with a graft case involving the General
Elections Commission (KPU) -- of which he was a prominent member
before being appointed minister.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Erry
Riyana Hardjapamekas said on Tuesday that the antigraft body had
sent a summons to Hamid, who departed later in the day for
Helsinki.

"We will not investigate him (Hamid) before May 31. Based on
his schedule, he will be in Helsinki for about five days,
therefore his questioning will take place after he gets back
here," Erry told The Jakarta Post.

Erry declined to speculate about the status of Hamid before
the questioning takes place.

A former KPU member, Hamid has been linked to the high-profile
graft case at the national elections organizer.

Several suspects have said that all KPU members, including
Hamid, received US$105,000 in kickbacks from companies that won
tenders from the commission to supply elections materials.

State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Hamid asked for
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's permission on Monday to
attend the fourth round of talks with the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) in Helsinki. The talks are scheduled to begin on Thursday.

"The President gave him permission because the talks with GAM
were scheduled long before this, while as of today (Monday) the
KPK has yet to issue a summons for Hamid," Yusril said.

Hamid is the chief negotiator for the government delegation at
the talks with GAM, which are aimed at ending decades of the
armed conflict between troops and rebels.

The government delegation also include State Minister for
Communications and Information Sofyan A. Djalil and Coordinating
Minister for Political, Legal and Social Affairs Widodo Adi
Sucipto. The delegation is expected to arrive back in Jakarta
next week.

However, Yusril said the government would respond quickly
should the KPK officially name Hamid a suspect and recommend that
the President suspend him from his Cabinet post.

Susilo left for Washington on Tuesday to begin state and
working visits to the United States, Japan and Vietnam. He is
scheduled to return home on June 3.

Responding to the imminent investigation into Hamid, Vice
President Jusuf Kalla expressed his belief that the minister was
clean.

"The Supreme Audit Agency report on bribery involving KPU
issued last month did not mention him, and he quit working for
the KPU last October. In regard to the kickbacks, I have
personally asked him whether he accepted any money and he said
no," Kalla said during a Golkar Party function in Bandung on
Sunday.

"I believe he did not receive the money," the Golkar party
leader added about his fellow party member.

Kalla said that he would leave the matter to the legal system,
which presumes a person innocent until the courts say otherwise.

"As long as a court has not found a citizen, including state
officials, guilty, we have to believe he or she is innocent,"
Kalla said.

He said it was a good sign of progress in the antigraft
campaign that state officials were being named suspects or being
jailed for graft. He added that such cases would prove to be an
effective deterrent.