Suspect ignores travel ban, slips abroad
Suspect ignores travel ban, slips abroad
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh lashed out at the Immigration
Office for allowing a key corruption suspect to travel overseas
despite being the subject of a travel ban.
"I want the Minister of Justice and Human Rights to pay
serious attention to this case. They can't do this. It endangers
the entire anticorruption movement. How could they let such a
person go abroad," he said to reporters on Friday after a
ceremony at the State Palace.
Abdul Rahman said that he had complained directly to justice
minister Hamid Awaluddin, who promised he would investigate the
case.
"I want the Immigration Office to be more serious. As far as I
remember, this sort of thing has happened three times since I
took up office," he said, adding that the police should step in
should any irregularities emerge in the case.
The Immigration Office comes under the supervision of the
Minister of Justice and Human Rights.
Achmad Djunaidi, a former president of state-run insurance
firm PT Jamsostek, which among other things manages the pension
contributions of millions of Indonesian workers, is a key suspect
in a corruption investigation that centers on loss-making
investment decisions made by Jamsostek management believed to
have inflicted losses of up to Rp 250 billion (US$26.3 million)
on the state.
According to Abdul Rahman, the AGO had informed the
Immigration Office on July 4 about the travel ban imposed on
Achmad, but nevertheless he was still able to pass through
immigration control on his way abroad on July 5. Achmad is now
performing a minor pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Later in the day, Hamid admitted that the incident was due to
the negligence of the Immigration Office, and said it was a case
of "human error".
He said that the Immigration Office received notification of
the travel ban on Achmad on the evening of July 4. The
Immigration Office then forwarded the notification to all
airports and seaports across the country, he said.
The next morning, immigration officers at Soekarno-Hatta
Airport allowed Achmad, who was traveling in a group, to leave
the country.
Hamid also said that the mistake could have been due to
"technical reasons."
Hamid said that the Attorney General's Office had told the
Immigration Office to prevent one "Ahmad Djunaedi, born in Lahat
on June 12, 1945, and residing at Jl. Bacang II No. 8 Mayestik,
South Jakarta" from traveling abroad while according to the
immigration officers at the airport, the passport presented by
Achmad was in the name of one "Achmad Djunaedi, born in Lahat on
June 12, 1943, and residing on Jl. Rambutan, South Jakarta."
Two immigration officers, identified as S and HP, have been
questioned by the Immigration Office's internal discipline unit
for "lacking responsiveness and creativity", Hamid said.
Immigration Office director Iman Santoso blamed the computer
system at the airport.
The Immigration Office said it had ordered its office in
Jeddah to withdraw Achmad's passport and replace it with a one-
way travel document.
"Hopefully, he will be back here soon," Hamid said.