Oetojo prepared to take the heat for Tansil's escape

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)