Presidential approval sought to grill Akbar in land case
JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General's Office will ask for presidential approval next week to question the House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung, who is a suspect in a land scam.
Such approval is being sought to pave the way for national police detectives to summon Akbar, who is accused of forging land titles for 23 hectares of land in Srengseng, Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta in 1995.
The Attorney General office's spokesman Muljohardjo told reporters on Friday that the office received the police's request on Feb. 16, and would forward the request to President Abdurrahman Wahid next week.
He said his office had not immediately forwarded the request to the President because they had to initially seek clarification on several obscure pieces of information in the police's report.
"We discovered ambiguities in the letter, including the fact that the case may be considered statute-barred as it started more than 12 years ago. So we have to coordinate this with the police," he added.
The case centers on the selling of a piece of land in Srengseng in 1983. The land belonged to Akbar's elder brother, the late Dato Usman Zahiruddin, who sold it to several buyers, including the city administration, who converted it into a public park.
Kurnia Ananda, who is Zahiruddin's son, filed a complaint to the police in 1995, saying that Akbar had sold the land without the heirs' consent.
Akbar, whose full name is Djanji Akbar Zahiruddin Tandjung, was the minister of public housing during the period in question.
On Friday, Akbar said at his office that he objected to him being named a suspect but will fulfill the police summons to provide clarification on the case.
"I have sent my lawyer to tell the state prosecutors of my objection to being declared a suspect as there is no legal justification to it... I wasn't involved in the land purchase."
Also on Friday, the Attorney General's Office named tycoon Johannes Budi Sutrisno Kotjo, a commissioner of textile company PT Apac Century Co. (PT ACen) as a suspect for marking up the purchase of textile machines in 1995 by using state funds.
Kotjo bought machines which were the assets of textile company Kanindotex Group, belonging to Robby Tjahjadi, to meet a requirement that PT ACen should provide new machines when taking over and restructuring Kanindotex.
PT ACen is owned by former president Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo.
The state prosecutors questioned the commissioner of PT Bank Umum Nasional Kaharuddin Ongko and its president Leonard Tanubrata as suspects for the misuse of the liquidity support of the Bank Indonesia.
The government channeled some Rp 144.5 trillion in liquidity support to 48 banks between 1997 and 1999 to help them through the economic crisis, but an investigation by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) reveals that Rp 138.4 trillion (95 percent) of it had either been misused or extensions had violated banking rules.
The prosecutors had named several prominent businessmen as suspects, but only one case involving Bank Aspac has been brought to trial.
Three former Bank Indonesia directors, Hendro Budiyanto, Heru Supraptomo and Paul Soetopo, have been named suspects for abusing their power in extending emergency loans. Hendro and Heru, who are believed to have played a more prominent role in the scandal than Paul, are now being detained at the AGO's offices. (bby/dja)