Police release Depok graft suspects

JAKARTA: Jakarta Police released 18 Depok councillors allegedly involved in graft from detention on Wednesday afternoon after detaining them for more than a month and put them under city arrest for 20 days.

"We believe they will not run away and destroy any evidence. Besides, we have finished our investigation on them," the city police special crime detectives chief, Sr. Comr. Edmon Ilyas, said on Thursday.

He added that the councillors' families had requested the release of the suspects as it was approaching Ramadhan, which starts on Friday.

Edmon said the suspects were not allowed to go out of town. "But they must go to Jakarta every Thursday to report to us."

"However, we still need assistance from the public to report if the suspects are violating city arrest," he said. -- JP