Suspects named in jailbreak

JAKARTA (JP): Police yesterday named nine more suspects in their investigation into the escape of businessman Eddy Tansil from a Jakarta jail, bringing the total number of people under investigation to 11.

Police have earlier named Dulhadi, alias Dudung, the man in charge of prison warders on the night of Tansil's escape, and Suwarno, another warder.

City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna, said yesterday all of the nine new suspects were members of a well-planned conspiracy that facilitated the escape.

"The new suspects, who include prison warders, porters and two employees of the prison's clinic, have different roles, but all of them are believed to have received money from Tansil," Iman told The Jakarta Post.

Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key business group, was serving his 20 year jail term for corruption when he literally walked out of the Cipinang correctional facility on Saturday evening.

The 42-year old businessman was convicted in 1994 for swindling Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo), a government- owned bank, of Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million).

Iman said Dudung has admitted receiving Rp 2 million from the business tycoon, which he then shared with his colleagues.

A reliable source at the prison said that some of the 11 suspects have been accused of counterfeiting medical checkup forms and permits. Tansil escaped on the pretext of going for a medical checkup.

The prison chief, Mintardjo, was believed to have also been questioned yesterday. Iman, however, said that Mintardjo had no knowledge of the escape.

Iman denied reports that Tansil had been recaptured. "As of this evening, the man is still at large," he said last night.

Police sources said one of Tansil's children was under medical treatment in Singapore on the day Tansil escaped from the prison.

According to East Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Gories Mere, Tansil was driven out of prison by Dudung and his son, Indrajit, to Dudung's house in Cipinang, East Jakarta.

Dudung then returned to the prison while Indrajit and Suwarno, Dudung's subordinate who was waiting at Dudung's house, drove Tansil to the Kober cemetery in East Jakarta, he said.

Tansil and Suwarno then headed to a place where Tansil met his wife in Krekot and headed for the Holland Bakery on Jalan Gajah Mada in Central Jakarta.

Nurdin Nursin, a former chief of the Cipinang penitentiary, told The Jakarta Post that Eddy Tansil had never been put under maximum security, a standard procedure which should have been followed.

Nurdin, chief of the penitentiary from 1987-1993 and still frequently pays a visit to the prison, said he had reminded the already sacked prison chief Mintardjo about the regulation, but the latter refused to listen.

As the authorities are going all out in their efforts to capture Tansil, pressure was mounting on Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman to resign as an admission of his responsibility.

Yesterday, a group of 50 Moslem students staged a demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice demanding that Oetojo resign. "He holds the greatest responsibility for Tansil's escape," one of the members of the Association of Islamic Students said.

Oetojo took the demand for his head in his stride, saying he understood that the students were furious about the escape of the entrepreneur who recorded the largest fraud in Indonesian banking history.

"I can understand how they feel about Tansil's escape," he told reporters. "I'm feeling the same way. I am also so sad and disappointed because of the escape."

However he did not indicate that he had any intention of stepping down.

Meanwhile Armed Forces Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung promised that the authorities would stop at nothing to trace Tansil.

"We'll hunt him down till we get him," Feisal was quoted by Antara as saying at a gathering in Sidoarjo, East Java, yesterday. "We'll get him...you (the press) don't know need to know how." (bsr/imn/14/har/01/sim)