Many cases under Susno dropped

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Wed, 10/14/2009 10:38 AM Headlines

Activists have accused the National Police of intentionally burying major cases, particularly graft-related, under chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, saying they have criminalized graft fighters instead.

"We have recorded a number of unresolved graft cases handled by the Bareskrim [criminal detective body]. Those cases are far more important for the public, rather than naming activists as libel suspects or former anti-graft body deputies as suspects in the alleged abuse of power," Emerson Yuntho of the Indonesia Corruption Watch told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Media reports have recorded dozens of major cases that are unresolved or were dropped by the Bareskrim in the past year.

In March, Susno took over the investigation into the voter list fraud case during the East Java 2008 gubernatorial election from the East Java Police. The takeover of the case took place shortly after Soekarwo, nominated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, was sworn in as the new governor on Feb. 12, 2009.

The case, which implicated the provincial polling body's former chairman, was investigated by local police and following a legal complaint by Soekarwo's rival Khofifah Indar Parawansa, nominated by the United Development Party (PPP) and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The takeover of the case was followed by the replacement of Insp. Gen. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja by Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam as East Java police chief.

Protesting the national unit’s intervention, Herman then filed a resignation letter to the National Police, declaring interference "from a higher position" as the main reason for his departure.

Last October, the Bareskrim extended its investigations to include a graft allegation in connection with the purchase of Zatapi crude oil involving the state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina, local companies said to be close to the Presidential Palace and to Singapore-based oil importer PT Gold Manor International.

The police named four Pertamina officials and a director of Gold Manor as suspects but did not detain them. The suspects’ names have also never been announced publicly and the case was subsequently closed.

The then National Police chief Gen. Sutanto was appointed as Pertamina chief commissioner in January while the graft case was still in progress. He was also included in the SBY-Boediono campaign team in the recent presidential election.

Susno’s squad, in March, carried out an investigation into the US$197.5 million Indover bank scandal but many sources have claimed the case has already been dropped.

Indonesian Police Watch coordinator Neta S. Pane said police had no choice but to clarify the status of unresolved cases to the public.

"Otherwise, the public may question their professionalism. The police may also lose the public trust," he said.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana could not explain the main reasons behind the dropped cases and the halted investigations into others.

"I don’t know the details of each case. Detectives must have explanations on the progress of investigations into these cases," he said. (bbs)

Unresolved cases:
2008: Zatapi scandal
2009: Indover bank scandal
2005: Police's 15 problem bank accounts

Closed cases:
2008: voter roll fraud in East Java
2008: 13 illegal logging cases in Riau

Sumber: The Jakarta Post