Suspected kidnappers detained
JAKARTA (JP): City police have detained a number of suspects in connection with last month's kidnapping and beating of businessman Sulaiman Ramli, better known as Han Seng, which was apparently intended to extract repayment of a debt which a private bank claims the businessman owes to it.
Speaking to reporters here yesterday, Crime Investigation Directorate Secretary Lt. Col. Primanto declined to give details of the suspects, saying that police were still looking for additional clues.
"Today I can only reveal that there are more than one suspect," said Primanto, a former West Jakarta police chief.
He neither confirmed nor denied the rumor, circulating widely, that police and military personnel were deeply involved in the incident.
Late last month, businessman Han Seng, through his lawyer Bambang Hartono, reported to City Police headquarters that he had been kidnapped and beaten by a group of about 20 people, including a police officer whom he identified as Lt. Col. Alfon, an officer of the Economic Crime Investigation Directorate at the National Police Headquarters.
Han Seng alleged that the group came to his house at 11 p.m. on May 12. They proceeded to hit and kick him, and then dragged him to a van where officer Alfon was waiting, he said.
According to Han Seng, the men continued to abuse him in the parking lot of Satria Mandala military museum on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta.
Han Seng said that the men had warned him not to report the incident to the police. "They said if I reported the incident to the police they would kill my relatives one by one," he said.
Although Han Seng sustained several injuries in the incident, he was fit enough to be questioned by police investigators a few days ago, Lt. Col. Primanto said yesterday.
According to Han Seng, the incident had something was related to a 1990 Rp 3.6 billion (US$1.6 million) loan from the Panin Bank.
He said that the money had actually been borrowed by an acquaintance of his who worked at the bank, Lay Mei Lin. He said that his name, rather than Lay Mei Lin's, had been used in the loan transaction because the bank's regulations did not permit an employee to apply for a loan.
He said that under an agreement between the two, Han Seng obtained the Rp 3.6 million loan from the bank but later gave the money to Lay Mei Lin, who then handed it over to her brother, Hariyanto Latief, who agreed to repay the money to the bank.
Three years later, Han Seng said, the bank asked him to repay the loan. Han Seng then told Latief, who had used the money to import luxury cars, to repay the money to the bank. But Latief declared himself bankrupt.
On the basis of the loan agreement, the bank kept asking Han Seng to repay the loan and, finally, hired debt collectors to exert pressure on him.
Officer Alfon is believed to be under intensive questioning at National Police headquarters.
City police detectives have questioned a number of people, including executives of the Panin Bank, in connection with the case.
Amir Syamsuddin, lawyer of one of the executives, said recently that Panin Bank knew nothing about documents other than the loan agreement between the Panin Bank, the creditor, and Han Seng, the debtor.
The lawyer also denied that Mei Lin was an officer of the bank. "Mei Lin was not a Panin Bank officer nor a bank customer," he said.
Further, Amir denied that the bank had been involved in the kidnapping and beating of Han Seng, although he conceded that Panin Bank did routinely hire people to encourage debtors to repay their loans.
"But, if those people coerce and beat the debtors it is not our responsibility, because our agreement with them does not ask them to do that," he said. (bsr)