Police correct Akbar's status from a suspect to a witness
Police correct Akbar's status from a suspect to a witness
JAKARTA (JP): The National Police have corrected their
previous statement that Speaker of the House of Representatives
Akbar Tandjung was a suspect in a land scam, saying he would be
questioned as a witness.
A letter correcting their statement was sent to the Attorney
General's Office (AGO) on Monday to revise the first letter which
asked the prosecutors to seek presidential approval for the
questioning of Akbar as a suspect in a land title forgery.
The second letter, however, did not contain any legal argument
for the correction, AGO spokesman Muljohardjo told reporters at
his office on Wednesday.
Akbar was earlier accused of forging land titles for 23
hectares of land in Srengseng, Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta in 1995.
Muljohardjo said that the office had sent the police request
to President Abdurrahman on Friday and received his consent on
Monday for the questioning of Akbar.
Akbar held a media conference, to state his innocence and to
object to his being named a suspect by the police, the same day
the police sent the second letter correcting their earlier
statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Golkar party deputy chairman Agung
Laksono met his colleague Attorney General Marzuki Darusman at
the latter's office to discuss the internal problems of the
former ruling party.
Also on the same day, Muljohardjo named businessman Robby
Tjahyadi a suspect in the case he recently filed against fellow
businessman Johannes Budi Sutrisno Kotjo, which has allegedly
caused some Rp 300 billion in losses to the state.
Muljohardjo said Tjahyadi had allegedly violated agreements on
the take over and acquisition of assets of his textile company
Kanindotex.
He explained that in 1995, the debt-ridden Kanindotex was
taken over by a consortium led by one of former president
Soeharto's sons, Bambang Trihatmodjo, through Kotjo, also a
suspect in the case.
"All Kanindotex shares should have gone to the consortium, but
investigators later found that Robby still held some,"
Muljohardjo said.
He also said that Tjahyadi had also marked up the value of the
assets and had misappropriated credit facility provided by Bank
Bumi Daya (BBD) and Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo).
"In the investigation it was found that $28 million of the
letter of credit worth US$42.2 million was misused," Muljohardjo
added. (bby)