Ongko, Samadikun leave detention

JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General's Office released on Thursday businessmen Kaharudin Ongko and Samadikun Hartono, both suspects in bank scams, from their detention and placed them under house arrest instead.

The office's spokesman Muljohardjo said the two suspects were discharged, pending their trials.

"State prosecutors handling their case deemed it was no longer necessary to keep them in cells as the investigation into them had been completed and sufficient evidence had been obtained," Muljohardjo told reporters.

Another suspect, former director of PT Bank Umum Servitia David Nusa Wijaya, had served his house arrest since April 30.

Muljohardjo said that the three had been cooperative during questioning and that all their bank assets were now in the hands of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

The case centers on the alleged misuse of some Rp 138.4 trillion of the state liquidity support extended to their ailing banks and another 45 banks during the bleakest period of the economic crisis from 1997 to 1999.

Ongko is alleged of misappropriating Rp 12 trillion of the liquidity loan when he was vice president of the PT Bank Umum Nasional (BUN) board of commissioners, while the former commissioner of Bank Modern Samadikun is implicated in the misuse of Rp 766 billion of the emergency funds.

The three cases account for Rp 1.27 billion in state losses.

The liquidity support funds, known as BLBI, were supposed to only be used to reimburse depositors after massive runs hit the banking industry. But some banks had allegedly used the funds for other purposes, including to bail out debt-ridden companies in their groups.

Their exit left former directors of Bank Indonesia Hendro Budiyanto and Heru Supraptomo as the only detainees in the investigation into state liquidity loan scandals. (bby)