Police admit negligence over Adrian's escape

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Police acknowledged on Friday sloppy police work that allowed Adrian Waworuntu, one of the key suspects in the Rp 1.7 trillion (US$185 million) Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal, to evade arrest.

National Police deputy chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida said the police internal affairs and intelligence division would examine the case to find out who was responsible for Adrian's escape.

"It is negligence not a coincidence. Probably, we were too lenient with the suspect and his lawyer, or possibly there were deals made between Adrian and certain police officials. We are going to look into that," said Dadang.

His statement was the first official recognition that the police were at fault in Adrian's disappearance while many media reports have speculated that police officials may have been bribed by Adrian to enable him to evade arrest.

Adrian's whereabouts is still unknown. Police had hinted earlier that the suspect may have fled the country.

Dadang said it was possible that National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar would order internal affairs to investigate the case.

Asked whether National Police director for economic crime Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko, the most senior official responsible for the case, knew of Adrian's whereabouts, Dadang said that everybody had to wait for the police chief to return from an international seminar in Mexico.

He added that the police were continuing to hunt down Adrian across the country, and would ask Interpol's assistance to apprehend the fugitive if they could not find Adrian inside the country.

"We also found out that the letter from the doctor was fake while Adrian's lawyer deliberately gave the fake letter to us," said Dadang.

Police named Adrian's lawyer Doni Antares Irawan as a suspect on Tuesday for harboring a fugitive and document forgery and they said that questioning him would shed light on Adrian's whereabouts.

They questioned Doni for eight hours on Thursday but didn't detain him as his lawyers guaranteed he would not abscond.

Doni has repeatedly denied that he had submitted a fictitious letter or knew of Adrian's whereabouts.

Dadang said police would interrogate Adrian's doctor F. Winerungan as a witness as soon as they finished questioning Doni.

He added that Adrian's doctor would also be named suspect if Doni's interrogation revealed that he had submitted misleading information in the letter for Adrian that allowed him a seven-day postponement to comply with the summons.

Last week, police declared Adrian a fugitive after he didn't report to police headquarter by the Oct. 1 deadline.

The police must hand over Adrian to the prosecutor's office as soon as possible because Adrian's case file is ready for trial.

Police said on Wednesday that Adrian might have fled the country using a different name because the travel ban on him was still effective. The police gave no indication as to which country he may have fled to.

Several media reports have speculated that Adrian is in the U.S. They said that it was possible that Adrian maintained his real name and bribed officials at the immigration office to allow him to leave the country.