Sjahril detained, Anwar takes over

JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General's Office detained Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin on Wednesday in connection with its investigation into the Bank Bali corruption scandal.

The move followed fruitless government efforts to unseat him from the central bank since December, and came only hours after President Abdurrahman Wahid returned home from an overseas trip.

Immediately after news of the detention broke, Bank Indonesia issued a statement regretting the move as potentially affecting the country's monetary stability.

The bank also announced that senior deputy governor Anwar Nasution had taken over the leadership of the central bank until Sjahril could resume his job.

Sjahril, who was named a suspect in the Bank Bali case last week, has rejected government demands for him to stand down in spite of an ongoing criminal investigation into him.

He has repeatedly denied the charges, and accused the President of using the Bank Bali case to force him from office.

Sjahril went to the Attorney General's Office on Wednesday morning to answer a summons in connection with accusations of complicity in last year's Bank Bali scandal.

He never left the office complex. He refused to talk to journalists as he was being escorted by two officers to an awaiting car that took him to the office's nearby detention center.

He was formally charged with violating the central bank's prudential principle when he ordered Bank Indonesia to reimburse interbank loans, guaranteed by the government, to Bank Bali.

Witnesses have testified to Sjahril's presence at a meeting involving some leaders of Golkar Party at a five-star hotel in Jakarta where the loan scam is said to have been concocted.

The Attorney General's Office spokesman, Yushar Yahya, told The Jakarta Post that Sjahril had been detained in order to facilitate the investigation into him.

Director of Investigation Ris Sihombing said he signed the arrest warrant on orders from Attorney General Marzuki Darusman. The warrant calls for a 20-day detention.

Sjahril's lawyer Muhammad Assegaf questioned the decision to detain him, saying that his client had always cooperated with and never obstructed the investigation.

"Sjahril's detention is the result of a protracted dispute between my client and Gus Dur," Assegaf said, referring to the President by his nickname.

Minister of Finance Bambang Sudibyo dismissed speculation that the detention would undermine the implementation of the government's economic recovery program. Bambang pledged to cooperate with the caretaker of the central bank.

"The working relationship between the government and Bank Indonesia is institutional and does not depend on individual officials," he said.

Bambang said he was confident that the detention would have little impact on the financial markets.

"I think the market will not react negatively ... Bank Indonesia as an institution still exists," he said.

The rupiah closed slightly lower at Rp 8,648 per U.S. dollar on Wednesday, compared to Rp 8,600 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Minister of Law and Legislation Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Sjahril's arrest complied with Criminal Code procedures because the governor was being accused of a crime that carries a maximum jail term of more than five years.

"The 1999 law on the central bank is not applicable in this case," he said.

Yusril agreed that technically Sjahril remained the central bank's chief until the court found him guilty.

In refusing to stand down, Sjahril had invoked a 1999 piece of legislation that guarantees the central bank's independence from the government.

The law also stipulates that only the House of Representatives has the power to dismiss the central governor, and then only after he has been found guilty by a court.

The House last week backed Sjahril's refusal to stand down, even after he had been named a criminal suspect.

From the presidential office, Cabinet Secretary Marsilam Simanjuntak said Sjahril should have been suspended from his post when the criminal investigation into him first began.

Marsilam denied that the President had intervened in the central bank's affairs when he offered Sjahril an ambassadorial post or a job in the Supreme Advisory Board in return for resigning from his job.

The President did that precisely to spare Sjahril from having to face investigation, he said as quoted by Antara.

Noted legal banking observer Pradjoto said he dismissed the suggestion that the government had been meddling in central bank affairs.

"I don't think it has anything to do with Bank Indonesia's independence. This is about a criminal investigation," he said.

He said Sjahril's detention would not have been such a personal tragedy if he had voluntarily stepped aside to focus himself on facing the criminal investigation.

"I have long suggested that he step aside. That would have been more elegant," he said. (dja/jun/bby/rei)