Police defend bank scam suspects' detention
JAKARTA (JP): Police defended yesterday the arrest and detention of businessmen over the Bank Arta Prima scam after lawyers for five of the seven suspects said they should be freed.
City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said that police handling the case had followed procedures correctly.
Hamami said that if the lawyers were unhappy with police handling of the case, the law allows them to sue police for alleged violation of arrest procedures.
On Thursday, the lawyers claimed police were overly hasty in arresting their clients and that police should be investigating the two people who reported the scam.
The lawyers appealed to the National Commission on Human Rights to recommend to the police to release their clients.
Hamami said yesterday that the lawyers had the right to appeal to the commission, but all the suspects were still needed by police for further investigation.
Chief of City Police Detectives Col. Gories Mere said that police could extend the detention term of an alleged suspect whose term has already expired.
Gories said that the district court has granted a police request to extend the detention term of Made Oka Masagung, one of seven alleged suspects in the case.
"Made's detention term ends today (yesterday). Starting tomorrow, he will serve another 30 days in the City Police Headquarters' detention house," Gories said.
He also said that more witnesses, including experts, would be questioned in the investigation.
"Expert witnesses will be questioned next week," Gories said. He refused to give further details.
Seven former directors of the bank and businessmen had been arrested for alleged involvement in the scam worth Rp 1.2 trillion (US$516 million), made up of Rp 324 billion in commercial papers underwritten by Bank Arta Prima and Rp 700 billion in bad credit.
The bank, originally founded by PT Gunung Agung, had issued commercial papers without approval from Bank Indonesia, the central bank. Around 11 papers have so far been seized as evidence.
Five of the seven alleged suspects were former bank executives, including Made as former main shareholder and now advisor of PT Gunung Agung, a widely-diversified business group involved in book publishing, a bookstore chain and other businesses.
The four former executives are Chaidil Aini and Husni Ali Thaqil, respective former president and director of Bank Arta Prima, and Hari Suhalim and Marcel Maulana, both former commissioners of the bank.
The remaining two alleged suspects are a businessman, identified only as S, and Kim Johanes Mulia, one of the owners of PT Jagata Primabumi which in July 1995 acquired Bank Arta Prima from PT Gunung Agung.
Gories said police had collected evidence and seized assets related to the bank scam totaling around Rp 200 billion, including Rp 172 billion in assets belonging to Kim.
"As much as Rp 170 billion was in the form of commercial papers, while the remaining Rp 2.5 billion was derived from Kim's accounts at two local banks," Gories said. (cst)