RI awaits China's report on Tansil
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is waiting for China to respond to a request to verify the whereabouts of Eddy Tansil, an escaped convict who reportedly owns a brewery in the country.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said he had sent a letter to the government of the People's Republic of China but had yet to receive a response.
He was speaking after appointing Adian Silalahi as chief of the ministry's research and development center, replacing Johan Syahperi.
Pending an official response from China, Alatas said that his office was still trying to verify reports that Tansil, the former chief of the Golden Key business group, owns a brewery in the Chinese province of Fujian.
Alatas said he sent the letter to China immediately after reports of the convicts whereabouts first surfaced.
"We will have to send people (to Fujian) and ask for help from local authorities," Alatas said. "So far China has been cooperative."
A request for Tansil's extradition would be submitted if the reports were verified, he said.
The Movement of Concerned Citizens on State Assets (Gempita), a private corruption watchdog, said on Dec. 28 that Tansil was currently running a brewery under a licensing agreement with Germany's Beck's Beer Co. in the city of Putian, in Fujian.
Tansil, 42, was serving the second year of a 17-year sentence for corruption and violation of banking laws when he escaped from prison.
He was found guilty of taking more than US$430 million from the state Bapindo bank for the construction of several chemical factories under his Golden Key Group in a credit scam run between 1989 and 1990.
Prabowo
At the same function, Alatas also said his office was still waiting for official confirmation of reports that Jordan had conferred honorary citizenship on Prabowo Subianto, the former commander of the Army's Special Force.
The Jordanian Embassy in Jakarta has said that it has no record of granting Prabowo Jordanian citizenship. Prabowo himself sent a facsimile message to the Indonesian media saying that while he had close relations with Jordan's First Family, he had declined to take up an offer of honorary citizenship from the kingdom because Indonesia does not recognize dual citizenship.
Prabowo received an honorable discharge from the military after admitting to an involvement in the abduction of a number of political activists.
Eleven members of the Army's Special Force are currently being court-martialled for their involvement in the kidnappings. The third session of their trial is scheduled for Tuesday. (anr)