Police wrap up 20% graft cases in 2004

Abdul Khalik The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Jakarta Police managed to complete the investigation into 22 out of 102 corruption cases in 2004, or about 20 percent.

However, police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani revealed over the weekend that the force had to drop 24 cases due to a lack of evidence and witnesses. The remaining 56 cases are still being investigated.

"The prosecutor's office deemed the 22 case files complete and ready for trial. I think an around 20 percent case clearance level is very good," he explained.

Firman added that the force's counterparts in Malaysia and Singapore, which were considered more advanced than the Indonesian Police Force, were very surprised by the Indonesian police's high rate of case clearance.

"Even Japan managed to solve only 11 percent of their total cases," he said.

The police managed to complete only two out of eight corruption cases in 2003, and are still working on others, said the chief detective of the city police special crimes unit, Sr. Comr. Edmon Ilyas.

"We worked very hard last year to improve our case clearance level. We managed to solve many high-profile cases, including the alleged corruption involving Bustanil Arifin," said Edmon.

Former State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chairman Bustanil was declared a suspect in a case involving an inordinate markup in a land purchase deal in 1990.

Bulog disbursed Rp 10 billion (US$1.12 million), approved by Bustanil, to buy a plot of land in Kuningan, South Jakarta, for which the market price was Rp 1.8 billion.

The land belonged to the second son of former president Soeharto, Bambang Trihatmojo.

However, the case file has not been submitted to the Attorney General's Office for trial.

"We completed the case last year. I don't know why the prosecutors have not brought the case to trial," Edmon remarked.

Another old case is one involving subdistrict chief Lilik Hasanudin, who allegedly amassed Rp 134 million in state funds earmarked for poverty alleviation.

Edmon said that his department had also been working on the case file of a Rp 46.46 billion corruption case at Bank BNI Pondok Indah and had named five bankers as suspects.

He added that the case files of 19 former Depok regental council members implicated in a Rp 9 billion graft case would be ready to be submitted to prosecutors soon.