Suspects confess to using fake documents

Suspects confess to using fake documents

P.C. Naommy, Jakarta

Two suspects confessed on Wednesday to falsifying official
documents used to smuggle 73,000 tons of sugar into the country,
police said.

"Both suspects have confessed they were involved in making
fake documents for the sugar importation," Brig. Gen. Samuel
Ismoko, a director of the National Police's Financial Crimes
Division, said.

Ismoko said Association of Village Cooperatives (Inkud)
general trade division head Abdul Waris Halid and Effendy Kemek,
an employee of one of the five partner companies of the
consortium formed by Inkud, had been in custody at National
Police Headquarters for one day and six days respectively.

He said police were still searching for two other suspects,
Andi Badar Saleh, a freelancer working for the consortium, and
consortium chairman Jack Tamin, who were also allegedly involved
in faking the documents.

Abdul's lawyer, Edison Bahaubun, denied the police's claims.

"I strongly deny the police's statement that said that my
client was involved in providing fake documents for the
importation. It's not true," Edison told The Jakarta Post.

He said police had asked his client about the fake documents
but Adbul had told them he knew nothing about them because he was
not directly involved in operational issues.

Customs and Excise director general Eddy Abdurrachman said
his office had discovered the bills of lading used by PT Phoenix
to apply for the warehousing of the sugar were fake.

National Police have named eight suspects in the case. They
are Abdul and Effendy, Jack Tamin and Andi Badar Saleh who remain
at large and Phoenix director Raja Barnaje, who is currently in
Thailand. The other three are high-ranking officials from the
customs and excise office in Tanjung Priok.

Ismoko said police had questioned Wahyono, the head of the
service division at Tanjung Priok customs and excise office, on
Wednesday and were scheduled to question the head of the Tanjung
Priok investigation section, Yan Miral, on Thursday and Friday.

Police have yet to set a questioning schedule for Muhammad
Zein, the head of the investigation section at the customs
office. They had not yet summoned Inkud chairman Nurdin Halid
over the case.

Separately, Minister of Industry and Trade Rini MS Soewandi
reiterated her denial she met with Nurdin to discuss a sugar
import license.

"I don't know him. Even if I had met him 20 times, it wouldn't
change the problem. The problem has developed from a smuggling
issue into one of document forgery and the legal processes are
currently underway," Rini said at the Presidential Palace on
Wednesday.

Nurdin has filed a report with the National Police against
Rini for libel.

Police previously announced they had confiscated a total of
65,000 tons of the smuggled sugar from warehouses in Jakarta,
Bekasi, Bogor, and in Makassar, South Sulawesi. Their
calculations now indicate they have seized 73,000 tons.

The illegal sugar has caused the price of Indonesian-made
sugar to fall far under its production cost to between Rp 3,200
(US 34 cent) and Rp 3,300, causing big losses to local producers.