Prosecutors fail to question governor

Luh Putu Trisna wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

The West Nusa Tenggara prosecutor's office has been thwarted in its attempt to question Governor Lalu Serinata as a witness in a Rp 24.5 billion (US$2.7 million) graft case that was earlier scheduled on Wednesday.

The interview had originally been scheduled for Wednesday. However, prosecutor's office spokesperson, Maryadi IK, said the governor's lawyers had sent a letter saying the governor could not show up as he was on official business outside of the province.

In the letter, the governor's legal advisers explained that Lalu would willing to be interviewed upon his return.

The governor was scheduled to be questioned in connection with a case involving mark-ups in the 2001 provincial budget. Twelve people have already been charged as suspects in the case.

Nine of the suspects are former councillors, who have been taken into custody, while the remainder are serving councillors and are still free pending the Minister of Home Affairs' consent for their arrest.

The governor's interview was scheduled for 9 a.m. on Wednesday but the letter stating his inability to show up arrived at 12:15 p.m., more than three hours late.

Lalu Serinata had expressed his readiness to be questioned as a witness on Tuesday.

Maryadi said the prosecutor's office was waiting for further instructions regarding the rescheduling of the interview.

Meanwhile, officials from the provincial administration were unwilling to discuss the governor's sudden departure.

But a source in the administration, who declined to be named, said the governor had been summoned to Jakarta by Vice President Yusuf Kalla.

The scheduled interview was the subject of much public speculation after protesters attacked the prosecutor's office on Monday in a show of force intended to secure the release of the nine jailed graft suspects.

A group of people claiming to be community leaders urged the prosecutor's office on Wednesday not to be discriminatory in handling corruption cases.

One of them, Umar Tahir, criticized the prosecutors for concentrating on the case involving the governor but not touching other graft cases.

For instance, he said the prosecutors had not investigated allegations of graft involving deputy governor Thamrin Rayes in a case concerning the purchase of administration land worth Rp 525 million.

"If the legal process were to run according to the law, we would accept it. But it's so discriminatory," Umar said.

Head of West Nusa Tenggara prosecutor's office, Zainal Arifin, denied that his office was discriminatory in its handling of graft cases.

"There's no such thing as discrimination here. The graft investigation involving the deputy governor is much more advanced than this (the governor's) case. In the deputy governor's case, it only remains for some documents to be prepared by the police before it can be taken to court," Arifin said.