Police doing utmost to catch Tansil

Police doing utmost to catch Tansil

JAKARTA (JP): National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo said
yesterday that his force is doing all it can to recapture Eddy
Tansil, the convicted businessman who escaped from a Jakarta
prison last month.

Dibyo told a Commission III hearing of the House of
Representatives, responsible for legal affairs, that the police
are also trying to trace the whereabouts of Tansil's wife and six
children who fled the country at about the same time as he did.

So far, officers have only traced the recent whereabouts of
two of the children, he said.

Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key business group, was
serving a 20-year jail term for defrauding the state-owned Bank
Pembangunan Indonesia when he escaped from the Cipinang
penitentiary in early May.

Police have launched a massive manhunt that has stretched
beyond national borders. Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman has
promised to recapture Tansil within three months.

Dibyo said Indonesia has secured the cooperation of fellow
members of Interpol, including China, Turkey, South Africa, Hong
Kong, France and Italy.

Altogether Indonesia has written to 179 countries for help,
sending the mugshots and fingerprints of Tansil, his wife and
children, he said.

Indonesia has also sent police officers to Malaysia, Hongkong
and Singapore -- mentioned as Tansil's most likely havens.

"We are still optimistic about finding Tansil," he said.

Dibyo said if Tansil was found in a country with which
Indonesia does not have an extradition treaty, the authorities in
that country could at least assist in apprehending him under the
mutual assistance agreement on criminal matters program.

They could, for example, deny him an entry visa and deport him
on the grounds that he was traveling on a forged passport. They
could then inform the Indonesian authorities of where Tansil
would thence be heading.

Indonesia currently has extradition treaties only with
Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia.

Dibyo said he was confident that Singapore would also
cooperate given that the two countries' police forces have worked
together on various occasions in the past.

He also pointed out that each year the National Police
receives assistance from foreign countries in more than 100
criminal investigations under the mutual assistance program. (16)