National Police detain six Bank Bali suspects
JAKARTA (JP): The National Police detained six of the 10 suspects in the high-profile US$70 million Bank Bali scandal on Tuesday, an officer said.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar M. Sianipar said the six were detained after being questioned for nearly 10 hours at National Police Headquarters on Tuesday.
"They are being detained for investigative purposes. They will be detained for as long as they are needed for the police's investigation," Togar told The Jakarta Post.
Togar identified the six as Setya Novanto, Djoko Sugiarto Chandra, Rudy Ramli, Rusli Suryadi, Firman Soetjahja and Henri Kurniawan.
The first two suspects are executives of PT Era Giat Prima (EGP) and the remaining four are former members of Bank Bali's board of directors.
Togar said the four other suspects in the scandal -- Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IRBA) deputy chairmen Pande Lubis and Farid Harianto; the head of accounting and payroll at Bank Indonesia, Desmi Demas; and Irwan Gunardwi, a Bank Bali legal assistant -- were not detained after being questioned.
The police spokesman deflected questions about the release of the four suspects.
Togar said earlier on Tuesday afternoon the suspects were being questioned as part of the police's efforts to gather additional information to complete the dossiers of the 10 suspects in the so-called Baligate scandal.
The dossiers were recently rejected by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, which Togar said wanted "new changes".
"They said they wanted the dossiers to be split in three. One dossier for suspects from the central bank and IBRA, another for those from EGP and the other one for suspects from Bank Bali," Togar said.
The Bank Bali scandal revolves around the transfer of Rp 546 billion from the bank to EGP as a commission for helping the bank recoup some Rp 904 billion in interbank loans to closed banks.
The government said Bank Bali should not have used the services of EGP because the loans were guaranteed by the government.
Bank Bali was taken over by the central bank on July 23. (ylt)