Police release all Suripto's personnel

Police release all Suripto's personnel

JAKARTA (JP): City police have released three men arrested on
Monday for illegal possession of weapons allegedly under the
employ of former secretary-general of the forestry ministry,
Suripto.

Police said on Thursday that like Suripto, the three men had
been named suspects but the police did not have enough evidence
to detain them.

"As does Suripto, these men must report to the police once a
week. The police cannot possibly detain them now since we still
lack evidence, and need more proof before we can officially
detain them," city police chief of detectives, Sr. Comr. Adang
Rochana, told reporters on Thursday.

The three released suspects were identified by police as Asep
Saifulloh, 38, Akhmad Paradis, 37 and Agus Julianto, 32. They
were arrested by Central Jakarta Police in a room in Hotel Cemara
in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Monday.

The police found the three men in possession of dangerous
weapons. Police described the weapons as 10 steel rods with
sharp, star-like figures on the ends.

Suripto earlier told police that he had reserved the hotel
room for his men to observe the security situation in the
capital. But he claimed that he had no knowledge of the sharp
weapons.

When asked why police could not detain the three men on the
charge of illegal weapon possession, Sr. Comr. Adang said that
police were mainly focusing their investigation on the
possibility that Suripto could have provided state secrets "to
unknown parties".

"These three men could have been backing Suripto in this as
well ... we are focusing our investigation on that, not the
weapons possession charge," Adang told reporters, without
elaborating.

Meanwhile, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi
said on Thursday that National Police would be seeking advice
from the National Cryptographic Institute (LSN) and the National
Archives Institute (LKN) about documents which could be
classified as state secrets.

"We may seek advice from LSN and LKN, on whether documents
found in Suripto's office in South Jakarta, could be classified
as state secrets," Didi said.

Suripto's lawyer, Effendi Saman, had earlier said that there
was the possibility that Suripto's arrest was not about leaking
state secrets, but was linked to the fact that Suripto had
provided evidence of corruption, allegedly committed by timber
tycoon Prajogo Pangestu.

Prajogo is one of three businessmen who were at one point
exempted from investigation by the Attorney General's Office at
the request of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

City police chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman, who is
scheduled to be replaced by Insp. Gen. Sofyan Yacob next week,
said on Thursday that the actions taken by his force were not the
result of political pressure.

"I have not been pressured by any political party, political
leader, or individual. There are technical reasons for the
decisions taken recently in the Suripto case by the city police
force. We are continuing the investigation," Mulyono told
reporters at city police headquarters.

On Thursday morning, Suripto was summoned by the Attorney
General's Office to testify as a witness for a logging concession
corruption scandal linked to Prajogo.

"Prosecutor Soewandi told me that state prosecutors had
actually named Prajogo as a suspect, and that he had been banned
from traveling overseas," Suripto told reporters on Thursday at
the Attorney General's Office, after the questioning.

His statement was however firmly denied by spokesman to the
Attorney General's Office, Muljohardjo, who said that the case
was still under examination and that "prosecutors had yet to name
any suspect in the case." (ylt/bby)