Tangerang frees top tax official

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)