Prosecutors to take over markup case

JAKARTA: The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office will take over a case from the police that involves the alleged markup in the purchase of two helicopters handled by Soeripto, a member of the House of Representatives from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Jakarta Prosecutor's Office head Rusdi Taher said on Friday that his office wanted to speed up completion of the case file as the Jakarta Police had failed to submit a tight case, which they hand been handling since 2000.

By law, prosecutors have the authority to take over a case from the police if they think the police are unable to complete the case file.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said early on Friday that the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office had declared the police's case file complete and that the police would hand over all evidence to the prosecutor's office soon.

Soeripto, former secretary-general of the Ministry of Forestry, was declared a suspect in 2000 after the police claimed they had found evidence indicating that he was involved in marking up the price of two helicopters the ministry bought.

The initial price of the helicopters, which were produced by PT Dirgantara Indonesia, was Rp 67.7 billion while Soeripto allegedly reported it as Rp 84.7 billion. The ministry eventually paid Rp 93.1 billion for each of the two helicopters, 10 percent of which was value-added tax. -- JP