Nursalim's firms and bank not affected

JAKARTA (JP): The abduction of business tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim, the owner of Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia (BDNI) and chairman of the Gadjah Tunggal business group, will not affect the performance of his companies, an executive of the bank said yesterday.

BDNI's head of public relations, Rudi Deswandy, said that the money used to pay the ransom demanded by the alleged kidnappers was not obtained from the bank's own accounts.

"The money used to pay the ransom was definitely not BDNI's money, it was Nursalim's," he told a press conference.

Rudi said the suspects had demanded Nursalim's family pay a ransom of S$7.5 million to be transferred to a bank in Singapore.

He said he did not know the name of the bank. He also refused to say whether the ransom had been totally met.

"The motive behind the kidnapping was purely crime," was all he would say.

"Let me repeat it again, the kidnapping had nothing to do with Nursalim as the owner of BDNI, but was aimed at Nursalim himself," Rudi said.

Rudi, however, refused to comment on whether the slight drop in value of BDNI and Gadjah Tunggal shares in the market yesterday was due to the media coverage of the arrest of Nursalim's kidnappers.

"I can't answer that. I haven't checked the market," he said.

The police announced Thursday that they had arrested eight of the nine men believed to have kidnapped Nursalim on Sept. 2 and held him for three days.

According to Rudi, Nursalim was abducted when he was on his way home to Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, after work. "The incident took place around 7 p.m.," he said.

Rudi declined to say whether any of the suspects were customers or shareholders of the bank.

"I think that question should be directed to the police, not me. All I know is that the victim didn't know the kidnappers," he said.

City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang, who also attended yesterday's conference, did not give much information.

"We're still investigating the case," he said. (cst)