Relatives set out to check on 'Hendra'
JAKARTA (JP): Relatives of Hendra Rahardja will leave Hong Kong for Australia this weekend to verify whether a man detained in a Sydney jail is their relative, a source close to the family said on Wednesday.
"Family members will depart from Hong Kong, probably the day after tomorrow, to Sydney, primarily to check the identity of the arrested man, who so far has been identified as Hendra Rahardja," Alamsyah Hanafiah, a former lawyer to Hendra, told The Jakarta Post.
He said Hendra's relatives had also told him that if his identity was confirmed, they would check to see whether or not Hendra required the assistance of Indonesian lawyers.
As reported earlier, Hendra -- for two years one of Indonesia's most wanted white-collar criminal suspects -- was spotted and arrested on June 1 by immigration officers at Kingsford-Smith International Airport in Sydney.
Hendra allegedly fled Indonesia in 1997 to avoid accountability, following liquidation of his two banks: Bank Harapan Sentosa and Bank Guna International.
But police have said Hendra fled with the money of his depositors, before the government had a chance to liquidate his bank.
Hendra was one of 24 senior executives from private banks in Indonesia named last August by police in an investigation of failed private banks for breaking legal lending limits and accounting rules.
The offense carries a maximum penalty of six years in jail and a Rp 6 billion rupiah (US$845,000) fine.
Together with most of his family, Hendra allegedly fled the country to an unknown destination, forcing Indonesian Police to request assistance from Interpol branches all over the world to trace the whereabouts of the suspected criminal.
Last Thursday, Alamsyah quoted Hendra's families as telling him the man apprehended by Australian Federal Police was not their relative.
"They (his family) told me there had been no arrest, and that Hendra was still abroad."
Confirmation
The remarks, however, were strongly denied by Australian and Indonesian authorities.
Confirming the arrest and identity of Hendra, Australian Federal Police spokesman Stephen Simpson told Reuters on Saturday Hendra was detained at the airport where he was attempting to board a flight to Hong Kong.
Indonesian police quoted their Australian counterparts as saying earlier that Hendra was arrested shortly after his arrival from Hong Kong.
DPA reported over the weekend that Hendra had said from the Sydney jail that he would fight any extradition attempts.
Simpson said Hendra, who is waiting on an extradition hearing, did not apply for bail when he appeared in a Sydney local court on June 2.
A procedural hearing, which took place at the court on Wednesday, failed to decide whether Hendra would be extradited, due to the absence of a written request from Indonesian authorities, Antara reported.
Judge Allan Moore adjourned the hearing to July 16, in the expectation Jakarta would soon submit the appeal.
According to local law, Australia has the right to detain Hendra for a maximum period of 45 days, from the date of his arrest.
Complicated
From Jakarta, Brig. Gen. Wayan Ardjana, secretary of Interpol's national central bureau, confirmed the absence of the official request for Hendra's extradition from Australia, saying "police are still working on it before being approved by the minister of justice".
"It's not an easy job. It's very complicated and we have to be very careful in carrying it out," Wayan said.
Should the official letter be approved by the minister, the letter would be handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which would in turn submit the application to the Australian Embassy here.
"We hope the official letter of request for extradition will be completed sometime next week," the officer said.
Hendra reportedly owned PT Yamaha Motor Indonesia, Gajah Mada Plaza office and shopping center, as well as other companies. He was also listed as an alleged insolvent debtor, involving some Rp 8.6 billion, by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.
In 1996, his younger brother, Eddy Tansil, bribed his way out of the Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta, where he was serving 20 years for defrauding state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) of Rp 1.3 trillion through his PT Golden Key petrochemical company.(bsr)