Riau prosecutors return weak logging report

Rizal Harahap , The Jakarta Post , Pekanbaru | Mon, 04/21/2008 10:36 AM | The Archipelago

Government prosecutors in Riau returned a dossier to the police about an illegal logging case involving a timber company because it was not accompanied with adequate evidence.

The dossier was returned because the police had only handed over Rp 1.4 billion (US$155,500) cash from the auction of 3,778 cubic meters of logs as evidence, spokesman for the Riau Prosecutors's Office Darbin Pasaribu said.

According to the dossier, the logs, which were seized as evidence in 2005, amounted not to 3,778 cubic meters, but rather some 7,000 cubic meters.

"The amount of evidence handed to us should be in accordance with the volume they seized. We're unclear where the remaining logs are. We can't accept this because it concerns a shift in responsibility. We have returned the dossier so the police can bring it into line with the exact amount of evidence described in the report. Failing to do this will mean the charges against the suspects will be weak and it is likely the courts will release them," Darbin told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Darbin said the provincial chief prosecutor had also rejected other evidence submitted by the police, including auction proceeds and a check worth Rp 500 million for bail put up by the suspects.

"Police investigators are not required to hand over the money in cash, but rather receipts for fund deposits so the bank can issue a transfer of funds report," he said.

According to Darbin, the prosecutor's office maintains the case files are still incomplete although they have been returned to the police 12 times for completion.

"They have not fulfilled our requirements, so we have asked them to hand over the suspects and evidence for further investigation," added Darbin.

Apart from the incomplete case files involving PT Tenaga Kampar timber company, the prosecutor's office had earlier returned 14 illegal logging and forest destruction case files to the Riau police. According to Darbin, the police have not completed the case files that his office returned last year, hampering court proceedings.

"We won't submit the case files to court unless they are complete. The prosecutor's office will be blamed if the suspects are released later," said Darbin.

Separately, Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Sutjiptadi said the remaining timber evidence had gone missing before the auction took place. He said he was unaware of how the evidence had gone missing and why it had been kept at the crime scene after the raid. He said he was not the police chief then.

"They (the logs) might have drifted, been stolen or even taken back by the suspects. They are responsible for the missing evidence because we stated in the investigative report that we stored the evidence at the crime scene," said Sutjiptadi.

He said the police had requested the funds to be transferred through bank accounts and had signed a check for the bail funds instead due to fear that cash could be lost or miscounted. He also said police had already handed in bail funds to the court clerk at the Bangkinang District Court.

"The return of case files is just a misunderstanding. We will immediately rectify the problem," he said.

He also promised to promptly complete the 14 other case files returned by the prosecutor's office.

"We are not ignoring the cases, we are still processing them. We are currently gathering statements from expert witnesses. We will also submit the environmental impact report in the near future thanks to response from the Forestry Ministry, which has promised to send a team of exports," he said.

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