Rahardi Ramelan comes to AGO at last

JAKARTA: Former minister of trade and industry and also former chairman of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Rahardi Ramelan eventually complied with a summons for questioning issued by the Attorney General's Office on Monday after having ignored it several times in the past.

Accompanied by his lawyer Yan Juanda Saputra, Rahardi appeared at around 10:30 a.m., and told reporters that he was only there to report his return to the country and not to undergo any questioning.

Around one hour later, Rahardi left the office. There was no official statement made by the office concerning Rahardi's appearance.

Rahardi was named a suspect in July in a 1998 corruption case involving Bulog. Prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office have documents showing that a disbursement of Rp 54 billion (US$6 million) of Bulog's non-budgetary funds were never accounted for.

Rahardi has reportedly been summoned four times by the Attorney General's Office but failed to show up on each occasion, saying he was still teaching at Boston University.

Prosecutors had earlier contacted Interpol to help arrange Rahardi's arrest, to which Rahardi immediately responded by asking the police not to put him on the wanted list as he promised to return to the country by the end of September. -- JP