Todung's office burglarized, documents missing

JAKARTA (JP): Prominent lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis's office in Wisma Bank Dharmala on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, was burgled before dawn on Monday.

Todung, who is defending Time weekly in a libel dispute with the Soehartos and, among others, is an executive of a general election monitoring body and the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), said that several documents and US$2,000 and Rp 2 million ($225) were missing from his desk.

"I don't care about the money, but my only concern is my documents," said Todung, a senior lawyer at the Lubis, Maulana and Santosa law firm which occupies 13 rooms on the fifth floor of the 20-story building.

Police are still in the dark about the burglary that allegedly took place between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. at the building, which is tightly secured.

The exact number of culprits is unknown. Three other rooms, belonging to Todung's other partners -- Leilana Santosa and Maulana, as well as the company's cashier -- were left in disarray.

Items missing from the three other rooms were not yet disclosed.

According to Todung, who was informed of the burglary at 10:30 a.m., the culprits were apparently searching for specific documents as all documents available in the office were sifted through.

"I'm sure that they're 'high class' burglars, who don't like my work at Unfrel (the University Forum for Free and Fair Elections), ICW, Panwaslu (the national Supervisory Elections Committee) and as the lawyer of Time magazine," he told reporters at the office, which was still being examined by police forensic experts.

At the moment, Todung is the national coordinator for Unfrel, a deputy chairman of Panwaslu and a deputy chairman of the ICW Ethical Board.

He is also a lawyer for prominent businessmen such as Sofyan Wanandi and Arifin Panigoro and political scientist Jeffrey Winters.

"I suspect that there must be something behind this burglary," he said.

"And I'm really sad about it," he said, adding that he had previously received a series of threats from unidentified people.

Todung told the media that he was unable to reveal details of the stolen documents, saying that he still had to check them first.

"A diskette containing data about the dispute between Time and former president Soeharto was not taken (by the burglars), although it just laid on my table," he said.

The diskette has a label with the word "Time" written in black ink on it.

"They could have indeed stolen other valuable things in my room, for example paintings of popular artists Nyoman Gunarsa and Rusli.

"But, they did not do it," he said.

The lawyer said that the burglary at his office was therefore politically inclined, instead of merely a criminal case.

"It's a kind of intimidation to suppress my efforts in enforcing the law.

"However, I've reached a point of no return in my struggle to uphold the law here. I will not retreat," Todung asserted.

He said he was visiting a polling station in Pademangan district in North Jakarta to oversee the voting process on Monday morning when his wife called to inform him of the burglary.

Sections of the ceiling above the rooms of Leliana's office, the front desk, his office and the finance division had been removed.

He therefore speculated that the culprits got into the office through the ceiling.

According to Agus Nusi, one of the on-duty security guards at the building, he first examined the office at about 1:30 a.m. but found nothing suspicious until he passed again at the site two hours later.

"I found pieces of the ceiling tiles on the floor," Nusi said.

His chief, J. Sagala, said that upon receiving the report, he hastily ordered four personnel to temporarily safeguard the office before reporting the case to the police.

Sagala insisted that the only entrance to the building was the one in the lobby. Anyone who entered the building would have been seen by one of the 14 security personnel on duty at that time, he said.

"The burglars were believed to have already been inside the building before damaging the ceiling tile located at the entrance of the office," he said.

But Sagala admitted all of the building's circuit televisions could only monitor the view but not make a recording.

"We asked for service two weeks ago but it has never been done," he said.

City police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman said police were still building the case and would not draw any immediate conclusions.

Even if the suspected burglars would be apprehended later, the police would first "charge them with a criminal violation of breaking and entering and theft of the belongings," Noegroho said. (asa/ylt/emf)