AGO drops embassy graft case
Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 03/18/2010 7:09 PM
The Attorney General Office (AGO) has finally closed a graft case at Indonesian embassy in Thailand and freed all three suspects in the case.
Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes Marwan Effendy confirmed on Thursday he had ordered investigators to drop the case.
"We found no convincing evidence that the suspects had acted against the law," he told The Jakarta Post.
AGO's investigators declared late last year three suspects on the case, namely Indonesian Ambassador for Thailand Muhammad Hatta, Deputy Chief of Mission Djumantoro Purbo, and embassy treasurer Suhaeni.
AGO declared it had found strong indications the three had committed corruption crimes .
An audit of the Development Finance Comptroller Agency (BPKP) resulted that the three had allegedly misused state funds from the 2008 budget.
The state-loss was estimated at Rp 7 billion (US$770,000).
Observers suspected an intervention had caused the AGO to drop the case, but Marwan denied any intervention from top officials at the government.
