Prosecutors to take over markup case

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