The Attorney General's Office said Friday it did not consider it necessary to detain fugitive Marimutu Sinivasan, who recently gave himself up to police.

"He surrendered under his own will. He is 70 years old and his health is in poor condition, so how is he going to run away?" said deputy attorney general for general crimes Abdul Hakim Ritonga.

Ritonga said Sinivasan, who ended his two years of exile abroad by turning himself in to the National Police on Thursday, was still in Jakarta.

The police immediately handed Sinivasan over to the Jakarta Provincial Prosecutors Office. The office has ruled it is unclear whether his case is civil or criminal and he is no longer considered a flight risk.

Sinivasan allegedly misappropriated Rp 20 billion (US$2.17 million) in credit from Bank Muammalat in 2001 while he was president director of PT Multi Karsa Utama.

The former owner of textile giant Texmaco also owes the government Rp 1.3 trillion (excluding interest and fines) for the use of Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) funds to bail out his Putera Multikarsa Bank.

In response to the House of Representatives' query about legal action against businessmen accused of misusing BLBI funds, the government said it considered Sinivasan among bad debtors and had launched a criminal investigation into his activities.

The prosecutors' decision not to detain Sinivasan drew strong criticism Friday.

Romli Atmasasmita, a criminal law expert from Padjajaran University in Bandung, said the AGO was applying a double standard in the Sinivasan case.

"There are many other suspects who are as old as Sinivasan and who have never fled the country, but the AGO keeps prosecuting them," Romli said.

The AGO's policy would upset the public's sense of justice, he said.

Romli also said the AGO should detain Sinivasan for the sake of law enforcement.

"Given he fled abroad in the past, the AGO must detain him, because his action amounted to an obstruction of justice," Romli said.

The case of former president Soeharto's son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, set a precedent for the AGO's policy.

State prosecutors did not charge Tommy with obstructing justice for escaping a Supreme Court verdict that convicted him in the murder of a judge in 2001.

Marwan Batubara, a member of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), criticized the AGO for treating Sinivasan and other major BLBI debtors differently from other suspects.

"Prosecutors have always protected those debtors," Marwan said.

Marwan, who said the AGO's record in dealing with major cases was disappointing, called on the Corruption Eradication Commission to take over the BLBI investigation immediately . (alf).

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