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Yusril grilled for 12 hours in graft scandal
IN HOT WATER: Former justice and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra (center) arrives at the Attorney General’s Office in Jakarta on Tuesday
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IN HOT WATER: Former justice and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra (center) arrives at the Attorney General’s Office in Jakarta on Tuesday. Yusril was questioned as a witness in a Rp 400 billion online services scandal. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)
Former justice and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra faced the music at the Attorney General’s Office for the first time Tuesday in relation to a Rp 400 billion (US$33.9 million) corruption scandal at the ministry.
Emerging from the interrogation room at 10 p.m., Yusril said that during almost 12 hours of inquiry he had faced 45 questions.
“I was given written questions and had to answer them in writing too,” Yusril said.
Assistant attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendi said prosecutors were seeking clarity on Yusril’s justification for issuing ministerial decrees about the online system at the center of the case.
“All the suspects in the case have referred to him as the one who signed the contract. We want to know on what basis he approved the project,”he said.
The AGO has named former director general for public legal administration Romli Atmasasmita and his two successors Syamsuddin Manan Sinaga and Zulkarnain Yunus suspects in the case.
State prosecutors accuse them of distributing funds allegedly embezzled from the legal administration website run by the directorate general.
The website has since 2001 allowed legal entities to register for permits and nominate notaries, charging some Rp 250,000 to Rp 1 million for the services. According to the AGO, the revenue from the website, which amounted to up to Rp 9 billion per month, should have gone to state coffers as non-tax revenue instead of to the ministry’s business partner and officials.
Yusril signed two ministerial decrees in 2000, one to directly appoint private company PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika (SRD) to build the website, www.sisminbakum.com, and the other to activate the system.
He claimed to have consulted the Finance Ministry in 2000 before implementing the system.
Following the consultation, he concluded the money generated from the system was not classifiable as non-tax revenue.
“I was also able to directly appoint SRD as the ministry’s business partner because the project didn’t use state money. It was a matter of investment, so we didn’t need a tender,” Yusril said.
The prosecutors questioned Yusril’s former wife Sukaesih as a witness on Monday. The investigators said part of the money allegedly embezzled in the case went to wives of ministry officials, including Sukaesih, for personal purposes. Sukaesih said she used the money for overseas trips.
On Tuesday, the AGO also grilled two senior SRD executives, former commissioners Lukman Prawira Sastra and Sunarto. Also questioned was PT Bhakti Asset Management (BAM) director Kushindarto.
BAM was the company that provided SRD with the money to fund the online project.
