Three Former Belawan Port Authority Heads Detained in Corruption Probe

Medan (ANTARA) – The North Sumatra High Prosecutor’s Office has detained three former Heads of the Belawan Main Port Authority and Harbour Master’s Office (KSOP), who are suspects in a case of alleged corruption involving non-tax state revenue (PNBP) from port and navigation services in 2023–2024. “The three suspects have been detained at the Class I Medan Detention Centre for the next 20 days for the purposes of the investigation,” said the Head of the Legal Information Section of the North Sumatra Prosecutor’s Office, Rizaldi, in Medan on Tuesday. The three former Heads of the Belawan Main Port Authority and Harbour Master’s Office, who have been named as suspects, are WH, SHS, and MLA. “They were detained after the Special Crimes Investigation team of the North Sumatra Prosecutor’s Office named all three as suspects,” he said. He said that the investigation team appealed to all parties involved or suspected of being involved in the alleged corruption case to be cooperative and not obstruct the investigation process. “Currently, the investigation team is continuing to work to complete the investigation process. If any involvement of other parties is found, strict action will be taken in accordance with applicable legal regulations,” he said. The Head of the Special Crimes Investigation Section of the North Sumatra Prosecutor’s Office, Arif Kadarman, added that the designation of the three former Heads of the KSOP as suspects was carried out after investigators found at least two pieces of sufficient evidence. He explained that the implementation of the obligation to use pilotage and towing services is the authority of the port authority. “If the port authority or port operating unit has not provided pilotage and towing services in the mandatory pilotage area and the extraordinary pilotage area, then these services can be delegated to a port business entity that meets the requirements as stipulated in Article 30 of Minister of Transportation Regulation Number PM 57 of 2015 concerning Pilotage and Towing,” he said. For the Belawan area, Arif said, the authority to use pilotage and towing services has been delegated to PT Pelindo Regional 1 Belawan. He added that ships that are required to use pilotage and towing services in the mandatory pilotage area are ships with a gross tonnage of over 500 GT. Based on data from the Sailing Permit (SPB) issued during the period from 2023 to 2024, it was found that ships with a gross tonnage of over 500 GT entered the mandatory pilotage area in the Port of Belawan, but were not included in the reconciliation data prepared and signed by the suspects during their respective terms of office. “During their terms, each of the suspects was the head of the KSOP, who was required to control and lead the arrangement and data collection as intended,” he said. As a result of these actions, the suspects are suspected of causing financial losses to the state from the PNBP sector amounting to billions of rupiah. “The suspects are charged with Article 2 paragraph (1) subsidiary of Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption, as well as Articles 603 and 604 in conjunction with Article 20 of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code,” he said. Copyright © ANTARA 2026 It is strictly prohibited to take content, crawl or automatically index for AI on this website without written permission from the ANTARA News Agency.