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)