Police release more suspects in BNI scandal

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police have released more suspects in the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) financial scandal on the grounds that the period of their detention permitted under existing legislation has lapsed.

Without giving precise details, police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko said on Saturday that two other suspects -- Jefrey Baso and Judi Baso -- had been released from police detention.

Police earlier released one of the key suspects -- Adrian Woworuntu -- for the same reason.

Adrian is co-owner of Gramarindo, a business group that reportedly received Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million) from publicly listed BNI by redeeming 41 bogus letters of credit issued by unreliable foreign banks. The other owner is Maria Paulien Lumowa, an Indonesian-born Dutchwoman currently still at large.

Judi, on the other hand, is a director of PT Basomindo, a subsidiary of Gramarindo.

"According to Article 24 of the Criminal Code Procedure we have to release a detainee if we fail to complete his or her dossier after the maximum 120-day detention period is over," Soenarko said on Saturday.

The scandal revolves around the disbursement of export credit worth Rp 1.7 trillion from December 2002 to July 2003 by BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch to eight Gramarindo subsidiaries, without completing the necessary assessments.

Police detected irregularities and alleged that the bills of loading attached to the letters of credit were fraudulent, as the goods were never exported, but the export loans were still disbursed.

Soenarko stressed that the release of three suspects did not mean the end of the story as the police would still try their best to complete the dossiers, as requested by prosecutors.

The police have put the three suspects under surveillance by imposing a travel ban on them and requiring them to report to the police regularly.

Police named 16 people as suspects in the high-profile scandal, and, according to Soenarko, prosecutors completed four case files involving nine suspects, which were ready for trial.

Investigators also submitted the dossiers of Nurcahyo, former BNI deputy for Region X, and Haris Is Hartono, to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office and were awaiting the prosecutor's response.

Soenarko said the police were still completing four dossiers on five other suspects -- Adrian Woworuntu, Jefrey and Judi Baso, John Hamenda and Rudi Sutopo.

Investigators were currently discussing some of the evidence in Adrian's case with two experts on criminal law to help strengthen their case.

"For Jefrey and Judi Baso, we're still awaiting the result of an examination of several documents from the National Police forensic and criminology laboratory," Soenarko said.