Witness says defendant lied in fake money case

JAKARTA (JP): A police witness said on Thursday that Junie, a defendant in the Rp 19.2 billion (US$2.1 million) counterfeit money case, had given false testimony during the initial court hearing.

She told the court she had no idea that counterfeit money was being made until one week before she quit, Sr. Insp. R. Umar Faroq of the National Police Detectives for counterfeit money crimes said.

"Three of the 10 defendants -- A Khui, Ismail Putra and Eddy Kereh -- told police detectives during questioning that Junie knew the defendants were going to print money before they got into the business," he told the hearing at Central Jakarta District Court, which was presided over by judge Rasadi Salmun.

Umar said Ismail had told him and other police detectives that the quality of the first print was bad.

"A Khui, Ismail and Eddy said Junie was in charge of sorting the bad banknotes from the good right from the start. She would also join Eddy and Ismail, they said, in destroying the bad banknotes by burning them," Umar told the court hearing.

"She was in charge of all the bookkeeping for any expenses incurred in the production of the money. Evidence seized from her Grogol residence on Feb. 29 proves that much."

Junie rejected what Umar said in court about her.

Ismail was arrested along with nine others at printing company PT Jaya Abadi Prima in Palmerah, West Jakarta, in February and March. The production and distribution of counterfeit money occurred between July last year and February this year.

In the initial hearing, Junie said Ismail had asked her to handle the bookkeeping for the business of printing confidential state documents.

Junie said she ended up staying at the Palmerah house, where she worked in a "locked room," doing the bookkeeping of "the money which was spent by Ismail".

There are two police reports on the testimonies given by Junie, and each one gives a different account.

In the first report dated Feb. 29, Junie told police that on the day she introduced Ismail and Eddy Kereh to another defendant, Yustinus Kasminto, they had discussed "the big order" that the group had received.

"The order was for printing rupiah banknotes, since Ismail had the paper for the K2 and K5 types. What I didn't know was the denominations of the banknotes," Junie said in the first police report.

"In July 1999, I was introduced to Ardy Sukarman (alias A Khui) by Ismail and Eddy at Citraland Mall in Grogol. Ismail told me that Ardy would sponsor the money printing project."

In the second police report, dated March 21, Junie stated that she did not know anything about the production of counterfeit money until a week before she left the business.

Junie's lawyer, Donnie, told the hearing on Thursday that Umar was giving information based on what was said by other defendants.

"He doesn't even know if the Rp 50 million in counterfeit money (evidence seized from counterfeit dealers Hendra and Hermanady) was printed at the Palmerah residence, does he?" Donnie said.

Umar said after the evidence was seized from Hendra, he led the police to arrest A Khui, who later led them to Junie, Kasminto and then Ismail.

"I asked Ismail what the serial number prefixes on the counterfeit money printed at the Palmerah residence were and Ismail recited all the ones that were used on the money seized from Hendra and Hermanady."

In a separate court hearing on Thursday, presided by judge Poerwanto, the Central Jakarta District Court heard the testimony of Sr. Insp. Yakobus, the officer who questioned defendants Ismail and A Khui.

Yakobus told the hearing that Eddy, A Khui and Ismail had tried to print counterfeit money in Java, and had traveled around Purwokerto, Muntilan and Yogyakarta for 15 days before returning to the capital.

A Khui then gave 14 reams of Super Omega branded paper to Eddy Kereh for safekeeping until they caught up with Kasminto through Junie, Yakobus said.

In a police report on Ismail, Yakobus asked him what reason did Tyasno (then chief of the military intelligence body Maj. Gen. Tyasno Sudarto) give him when Tyasno said the central bank had granted him a permit to print money for the Indonesian Military.

Ismail answered: "The reason was that the central bank had been forbidden by the Indonesian Monetary Fund (IMF) to print Indonesian rupiah." (ylt)