Nurdin Halid defies police summons over sugar scam

Nurdin Halid defies police summons over sugar scam

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

Lawmaker Nurdin Halid defied a police summons for questioning on
Monday in connection with his alleged role in a sugar smuggling
scam.

National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung
Sudjono said Nurdin failed to show up and instead sent a letter
to his office asking for the questioning to be delayed until
Friday.

The letter also said Nurdin had to attend a commemoration
ceremony for cooperatives day and a meeting to prepare a national
meeting of the Indonesian Cooperatives Council, Suyitno said.

The letter said the two events had been planned long before
Nurdin, who also chairs the Confederation of Primary Cooperatives
Association (Inkud), received the summons.

Suyitno said the police would send a second summons to the
lawmaker on Tuesday for questioning on Thursday.

"If we can do it on Thursday, why should we wait until Friday.
I think the sooner the better," he said.

A police spokesman said if Nurdin failed to answer three
summons, police would bring him in for questioning by force.

Nurdin, a member of the Regional Representatives faction in
the People's Consultative Assembly representing South Sulawesi,
was to have been questioned on Monday as a witness in the
smuggling of 73,000 tons of sugar.

The summons for Nurdin's questioning was issued after the
police questioned Inkud president director Chairudin Noor last
Thursday.

"We have to question Nurdin as soon as possible to find out
his role and Inkud's position in the scandal. As chairman, he
should have known about every big transaction involving the
organization," Suyitno said.

Nurdin's younger brother Abdul Waris Halid, who also has a
position at Inkud, is one of eight suspects named by the National
Police in the sugar smuggling.

The seven other suspects include Effendy Kemek, Jack Tanim and
Andi Badar Saleh -- all from a consortium formed by Inkud to
handle sugar imports -- and Raja Bernaje, the president director
of PT Phoenix Commodities Indonesia, which exported the sugar.

The other three suspects are Wahyono, the head of the service
division at the Tanjung Priok Port's customs and excise office,
Yan Miral, the head of the port's investigation section, and
Muhammad Zein, who heads the port's intelligence subunit.

Jack and Andi remain at large, while Raja Bernaje, who is
currently living abroad, has also failed to answer a police
summons. The police are detaining Abdul Waris and Effendy.

Suyitno said the suspects were being charged with smuggling
the sugar into the country. Several of them also have been
charged with falsifying documents.

All of the suspects in the case have been questioned by
police, except for Jack, Andi and Raja.

Suyitno said the police had identified the key suspects in the
smuggling, but needed to question more witnesses to complete
their case files.

The smuggled sugar caused the price of Indonesian sugar to
fall below its production cost of between Rp 3,200 (34 US cents)
and Rp 3,300, resulting in major losses for local producers.