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Prosecutors demoted over Gayus tax case

The Attorney General’s Office announced it demoted two prosecutors after both were found guilty of not conducting a proper examination of the corruption case involving tax officer Gayus H

Dicky Christanto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, April 9, 2010

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Prosecutors demoted over Gayus tax case

T

he Attorney General’s Office announced it demoted two prosecutors after both were found guilty of not conducting a proper examination of the corruption case involving tax officer Gayus H. Tambunan.

The junior attorney general for monitoring, Hamzah Tadja, said Thursday the prosecutors were Cirus Sinaga, now posted as assistant prosecutor for special crimes at the Central Java Prosecutor’s Office and Poltak Manulang, now posted as deputy head of Maluku Prosecutor’s office.

Cirus used to serve as the head of prosecutors tasked to follow up the Gayus case after he received a dossier from the National Police. Cirus’ name was well-known due to his role as a prosecutor in the murder trial of a former chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission, Antasari Azhar.

Poltak was the prosecutor who was tasked to build the indictment for Gayus.

“We dismissed them from their current posts because we found a strong indication that they had tampered in the case,” he said Thursday. “He should be held responsible.”

Cirus and Poltak have been demoted from their posts.

Hamzah said the demotion was among the punishments stipulated by a 1980 government regulation on standard operating procedures for civil servants.

He said the internal investigation continued. “Once we find more convincing evidence that may show us their involvement in the case, we will hand them to the authorities to be further questioned,” he said.

He added the team would pursue information about who should be held responsible.

“For example, we have also questioned junior attorney general for general crimes Kemal Sofyan regarding this case,” he said.

He said he had received information from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) about the possibility that these prosecutors were given bribes by Gayus during the investigation process.

“But then we learned that the PPATK could not reveal the specific identity of those who had transferred their money through transactions, therefore we still need to question Gayus, his lawyers and police investigators to find whether these prosecutors were involved,” he said.

Hamzah said the office’s internal affairs were still questioning several other prosecutors including Fadil Regan, Eka Kurnia Sukmasari, Ika Safitri Salim, Nasran Aziz and Irvan Jaya, Sriyono.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said he welcomed the prosecutors’ plan to question Gayus, his lawyers and the police investigators.

The police have named seven people as suspects in this case, two police officers. These people were Gayus, Andi Kosasih, Gayus’ lawyers Lambertus and Haposan Hutagalung, Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini, Comr. Muhammad Arafat Enanie and Alif Kuncoro.

The police’s internal division also summoned seven police officers who were related to the case, including Brig. Gen. Edmon Ilyas, Brig. Gen. Raja Erizman, Sr. Comr. Eko Budi Sampurno, Sr. Comr. Pambudi Pamungkas and Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini.

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