Two more dossiers on BNI scandal rejected

Two more dossiers on BNI scandal rejected

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office is to return on Thursday the case
files submitted by the police last week on Nurcahyo and Haris Is
Hartono, two of 16 suspects in the Rp 1.7 trillion financial
fraud involving Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), the Gramarindo Group
and the Petindo Group.

Nurcahyo is former deputy of BNI Region X, while Haris is from
PT Mahesa, a subsidiary of PT Gramarindo.

The assistant for special crimes at the Jakarta Prosecutor's
Office, Marwan Effendi, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that
they would reject the two dossiers because they were incomplete.

"We are currently formulating several instructions to police
concerning the missing information. We will return them
(dossiers) to the police tomorrow," said Marwan.

Marwan said prosecutors had notified police regarding
Nurcahyo's and Haris' case files and that they needed to be
completed less than a week after their return.

According to Marwan, prosecutors must inform the police of an
incomplete status of a dossier within the maximum 14-day review
period after it is submitted.

As was the case with the dossier for Adrian Wowuruntu, a key
suspect in the fraud, the dossiers on Nurcahyo and Haris did not
provide strong enough evidence to support an indictment, and thus
"failed to prove the involvement of the accused in committing the
crime", said Marwan.

Article 183 of the Criminal Code states that police must
present evidence that a criminal action actually took place and
that the suspect in question was responsible for that action.

Marwan said the dossiers did not contain enough documents nor
expert witnesses to support the charges.

Of the 10 dossiers that have been submitted on the fraud case,
only four dossiers covering nine suspects have been approved by
the prosecutor.

As of March 31, four of the six remaining dossiers -- on
Haris, Nurcahyo, Adrian and Rudi -- were still awaiting the
prosecutors' response, while the other two -- one on John Hamenda
and the other on Jeffrey and Yudi Baso -- were deemed incomplete.

"We will be very careful in examining the four dossiers and
make an optimum effort to finish them, because we don't want
people to think negatively about us," said Marwan.

National Police chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Suyitno Landung
Soedjono said earlier that police were running forensic tests on
several documents belonging to Jeffrey and Yudi Baso that could
prove Adrian's involvement in the scandal.

"The examination is to determine the authenticity of the
documents and whether the signatures on them really belong to the
suspect (Adrian)," he added.

The legal detention period of the four suspects in custody of
the National Police will expire soon; Nurcahyo, Rudi Sutopo (from
PT Mahesa) and John Hamenda (owner of the Petindo Group), will be
released in April, and Haris in May.