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.