Police wrapped up 20% of graft cases in 2004
Police wrapped up 20% of 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.