Police await Maga's OK to question lawmaker
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta
National Police Headquarters have postponed the questioning of Nurdin Halid, chairman of the Confederation of Primary Cooperatives Association (Inkud), in relation to a sugar smuggling case pending approval by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, a police general said on Monday.
Questioning was initially scheduled for Tuesday.
Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung, National Police chief of detectives, estimated that the bureaucratic process would delay Nurdin's questioning until at least until next week.
Suyitno explained that the police headquarters sent a letter to the Attorney General's Office on Monday requesting that the office apply for presidential approval for Nurdin to be questioned. It takes time for presidential approval to be handed down, said the police general.
"Presidential approval is mandatory as Nurdin is House of Representatives legislator," said Suyitno.
Police want to question Nurdin, a powerful politician linked to the mighty Golkar Party, in connection with 73,000 tons of smuggled sugar found in warehouses in Jakarta, Bekasi, Bogor and Makassar, South Sulawesi province, following the questioning of Inkud president director Chairudin Noor last Thursday.
According to Suyitno, Nurdin and Chairudin should have been aware of every mayor transaction made by the association, so that it was essential for police to question them as witnesses.
Their status, however, could be changed to that of suspect if there is enough evidence to charge them, said Suyitno.
Police headquarters have named eight suspects in the case, namely Nurdin's younger brother Abdul Waris Halid of Inkud; Effendy Kemek, Jack Tanim and Andi Badar Saleh of a consortium formed by Inkud to take care of imports; and exporter Phoenix Commodities Indonesia president director Raja Bernaje.
The other three are Wahyono, the head of the service division at Tanjung Priok customs and excise office, Yan Miral, the head of Tanjung Priok I investigation section and Muhammad Zein, the head of Tanjung Priok I intelligence subunit.
Jack and Andi are on the run, while Raja Bernaje ignored a police summons. Abdul Waris and Effendy are being detained at police headquarters.
Suyitno said the eight had been declared suspects because they were responsible for the illegal entry of the sugar into the country. Several of them have been charged with falsifying documents, he said without elaborating.
He explained that most of the suspects in the case had been questioned by the police. "Except for the three fugitives, we have questioned all of the suspects. We have the big picture on who was responsible for the smuggling, but we need information from more witnesses in order to enable us to complete the dossiers," he said.
National Police Director of Fraud Brig. General Samuel Ismoko said previously that the police had anticipated the possibility of the three fugitive suspects attempting to flee the country by imposing travel bans on them. He said he signed a letter instructing the immigration office to ban Inkud's general trade division head Abdul Waris, consortium chairman Jack Tanim and consortium employee Andi Badar Saleh from traveling abroad.
The illegally imported sugar has caused the price of local sugar to fall to less than its production cost to between Rp 3,200 (34 U.S. cents) and Rp 3,300, causing local producers huge losses.