Soemarjono failed lie detector test: Police

SURABAYA (JP): Police have announced that Col. (ret) Soemarjono, the main suspect in a counterfeit money case, failed a polygraph test he underwent on Saturday.

"Soemarjono as the main suspect told flagrant lies in front of investigators in an attempt to cover up the involvement of other key persons in this counterfeit banknote business," East Java Police chief of detectives Col. Suharto claimed on Tuesday.

Suharto regretted Soemarjono's constant denials, even though most of the 13 other suspects in the case testified that the retired officer was the mastermind of the production and distribution of counterfeit money totaling Rp 4.7 billion.

"With Soemarjono being tight-lipped on this case, it will be hard for us to thoroughly break the fake money network," Suharto said.

Soemarjono took a lie detector test here on Saturday during four hours of questioning. He reportedly only gave short answers to investigators during the test.

The result of the test was reportedly received by the Surabaya Police from the National Police Laboratory (Puslabfor) on Tuesday morning.

A polygraph test is not prohibited in investigations, although the results are not admissible in a court of law.

Surabaya City Police chief of detectives Maj. Edwin B.M., however, remarked that Soemarjono's polygraph result showed "a high degree of failure, reaching 85 percent".

Sources at the Surabaya detective unit said Soemarjono failed in two main questions, namely on his relation with the other key suspect, Slamet Hardjo, and the transaction on the imported fake paper supply allegedly carried out by a suspect named Lista.

The sources said Soemarjono denied making any deals with Slamet Hardjo. One deal is said to have taken place at Kafe Famili, a cafe owned by Soemarjono.

"(But) we have testimonies from Adiyanto, Slamet Hardjo's driver, who overheard a conversation between his employer and Soemarjono about the (fake money) deal," Edwin added.

The dossiers on the case are expected to be handed over to the Surabaya Attorney General's Office this week.

It is a fall from grace for the former military police commander at the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad).

After being hailed a hero after steering Indonesia's badminton team to victory at the Thomas Cup championships in Kuala Lumpur last month, he was immediately named a suspect in the counterfeit case upon his return to Jakarta. (nur/edt)