Oetojo prepared to take the heat for Tansil's escape

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman, facing increasing public pressure for the escape of convicted businessman Eddy Tansil, says he's ready to take the heat.

"I wrote a report to President Soeharto as soon as I found out last Tuesday that Tansil had escaped. I'll comply with whatever decision the President makes about me," he told reporters yesterday.

He admitted that Tansil's escape from the Cipinang penitentiary, allegedly achieved by bribing a number of officers, has "affected" the image of the country's legal system and raised questions about the supervision of prison inmates.

A wave of demonstrations has swept through several cities, especially Jakarta, all protesting the conditions that have enabled Tansil to escape. Many of the protesters have also demanded the resignations of a number of high-ranking officials they say are responsible for the escape.

The first demand for Oetojo's resignation came from about 50 members of the Association of Moslem Students late last week.

The 42-year-old businessman escaped from the Cipinang penitentiary on the evening of May 4. Oetojo, however, learned of the escape three days later, and not from the Cipinang prison head, but from reporters.

The prison head, Mintardjo, has been dismissed from his position for failing to anticipate the escape and for not reporting immediately to his superiors that Tansil was missing.

Meanwhile, Director of Supervision and Execution at the Directorate General of Immigration, Rahardi Suroprawiro, said his office has contacted Hong Kong, to where Tansil is thought to have fled.

Rahardi said that he had no information yet, but added that he was not ruling out the possibility of Tansil having fled to the Portuguese protectorate Macau. "We have such good coordination with the Hong Kong authorities that it would be easy to track Tansil down if he was really there," he said.

National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo said the police have questioned Tansil's close relatives, including his foster daughter.

Dibyo, however, denied reports that they were holding his relatives hostage in order to force Tansil to return. "We cannot hold Tansil's daughter hostage. We have to follow investigation procedures," he said.

He said police had questioned 20 people who might have been involved in the escape of the businessman sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for embezzling Rp 1.3 trillion in state money.

Separately, the head of the Jakarta population office, Soemarto, said yesterday that his office is responding to police findings that Tansil has more than one identity card.

During a sweep of 16 homes belonging to Tansil and his relatives over the weekend, police found a number of identity cards bearing the name of Eddy Tansil.

"We are checking with the mayoralty offices of the population agencies," Soemarto said. He added that he would take "necessary action" against those officials found to have been involved in the issuance of the identity cards while knowing that Tansil already had one.

He admitted there were many loopholes in the process for issuing identity cards, including the inability to check on an applicant's genuine identity.

"The applicant could also claim to have lost his identity card, and we have no way of verifying the claim," he said. (imn/anr)