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.