Graft suspect not hires Navy's aircraft: Navy spokesman

Matheos Viktor Messakh , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 07/04/2008 6:42 PM | National

Indonesia navy spokesman Commodore Iskandar Sitompul has denied media coverage that a graft suspect had hired the navy's aircraft in order to escape to Jakarta.

"The pilot and the crew did not know that there was a fugitive among the 14 people who asked to be dropped at Ambon by the navy aircraft. If they knew, they surely would have arrested him to help the prosecutors," Sitompul said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.

As reported by several local and national media such as Jawa Post and detik.com on Thursday, the suspect, Salim Alkatiri, had hired a navy aircraft from Namlea airport in Buru Island to Pattimura International Airport in Ambon, both in Maluku province, in order to escape to Jakarta.

Alkatiri was nabbed by officials from Ambon's district attorney office when he was about to take a flight with Lion Air aircraft to Jakarta on Wednesday evening.

Sitompul said the navy U-618 Cassa aircraft was in Namlea for hiding from the bad weather during a routine patrol from Surabaya to Ambon. The aircraft later helped to transport 14 passengers from the island to Pattimura International Airport in Ambon.

"With no information on the fugitive and also the Namlea airport officials who were actually in charge of passenger registration, the navy pilot Maj. Bambang Edi only transported the passengers to Pattimura airport. There was no intention to help the fugitive escape," Sitompul said.

Alkatiri, a doctor, former head of Buru Municipality's health agency and former National Mandate Party legislator, was implicated in a graft case over the procurement of health equipments for a public hospital in Namlea in 2003, which caused a total Rp 900 million (about US$97,600) in losses to the state.

Ambon district attorney head Daniel Palapia said that before the arrest, Alkatiri had failed to meet three consecutive summons from Ambon district attorney.

"Soon after we heard that he had came to Ambon by a navy aircraft, we came to the airport. When we arrived he had been hidding at a Mushola so we were unwilling to catch him. We waited until the final call and nabbed him in front of the airport gate when he was about to departed," Palapia told The Post on Thursday.

Palapia said he was dealing with the case since he was an assitant in the Maluku Provincial Attorney in 2003, adding that "it's a long and difficult proccess to deal with this person."

The district attorney has been chasing him since his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 2007. A copy of the appeal was received by the Ambon district attorney on April 17, 2008.(**)

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