Tangerang frees top tax official

TANGERANG (JP): Although the Supreme Court has yet to announce its decision, the Tangerang Penitentiary has released a former official of the local Tax Service Office convicted of manipulating invoices worth Rp 2.4 billion (US$1.1 million).

The spokesman for the Tangerang District Court, J.H. Situmorang, said the penitentiary's administration had no right to release Zulfikar Effendi Kari, 45, because the prosecutor of the case has not yet received news of a ruling from the Supreme Court.

Situmorang said on Wednesday that prosecutor Tarwo had described his dissatisfaction about the shorter term of imprisonment ruled by the West Java High Court in his appeal to the Supreme Court.

In a trial late last year, Zulfikar, former head of the Value- Added-Tax and Indirect Tax section of the Tangerang Tax Office, was found guilty of embezzling Rp 2.4 billion by making up bogus companies in order to manipulate invoices. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Zulfikar appealed for a shorter prison term to the West Java High Court, which then gave him one year and four months in prison.

A day before the suspect's sentence ended on Nov. 12 as stipulated in the High Court ruling, prosecutor Tarwo submitted his appeal to the Supreme Court. On Nov. 13, Zulfikar was released by the penitentiary.

Head of the penitentiary office could not be reached for comment yesterday due to complicated bureaucracy procedures.

Situmorang said the penitentiary has no right to release prisoners convicted of narcotics and corruption related crimes without the approval of the Supreme Court. (13/bsr)