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Alleged tampering in Gayus graft trial
The acquittal of graft suspect Gayus Tambunan by the Tangerang District Court in March was engineered by a prosecutor, a police investigator testified at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday
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he acquittal of graft suspect Gayus Tambunan by the Tangerang District Court in March was engineered by a prosecutor, a police investigator testified at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday.
Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini was testifying at the trial of fellow investigator Comr. Mohammad Arafat Enanie, who allegedly accepted bribes from Gayus, whose graft case is being reopened following revelations that his acquittal had been engineered by corrupt officials.
Sri, who with Arafat investigated Gayus, told the Court that a district attorney named Fadil requested
she charge Gayus not only with money laundering but also with embezzlement.
“Fadil spoke to me on the phone. He asked me to also charge Gayus with embezzlement to speed up the completion of Gayus’ police dossier,” said Sri, who is also a suspect for receiving bribes from Gayus.
She did not fully disclose the identity of Fadil, but it is believed the three prosecutors from the
Attorney General’s Office implicated in the Gayus case are Fadil Regan, Cirus Sinaga and Poltak Manulang.
Sri added that she was aware that Fadil’s request was not by the book, but said she did not inform Fadil of this because she also wanted to have the documents completed promptly.
The Tangerang District Court acquitted Gayus with the presiding judge saying he believed the charges were weak.
In a separate trial at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday, Gayus testified against alleged case broker Sjahril Djohan, who Gayus’ lawyer Haposan Hutagalung turned to in order to get the police to unfreeze his client’s seized Rp 25 billion (US$2.77million) bank accounts and also to stop investigators from arresting Gayus.
Gayus said he did not know Sjahril, and that Haposan had tricked him. He said Haposan intimidated him and told him that he would be arrested unless he bribed certain police officers.
“If you don’t want to be arrested,” Gayus quoted Haposan as saying, “pay up. If you don’t want to have your property seized, pay up. If you want to have your accounts returned, pay up.”
“Haposan turned out to be lying. I learned later that the police had no intention of arresting me,” he told the court.
He added that Haposan, also a suspect in the scandal, asked him to submit a document meant to unfreeze his bank accounts to a person identified by the initials SJ.
“Haposan sent a text message asking me to send the document to a fax number, which supposedly belonged to SJ. However, after it was tracked down, [we found out] the number belonged to the National Police chief,” he was quoted as saying by news portal kompas.com.
During his testimony, Gayus did not say whether he thought SJ was Sjahril Djohan.
Gayus said Haposan told him how SJ could help him unfreeze one of his accounts because the
suspected case broker had close ties to then National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who is also a suspect in the Gayus bribery case.
Gayus is reported to have many bank accounts, including at Bank Panin and Bank Central Asia, where he had Rp 28 billion (US$ 3.1 million) allegedly amassed from his time as an official at the Directorate General of Taxation, where he was suspected of aiding large-scale tax cheats.
Gayus has testified several times in corruption trials related to his current trial, where it is alleged he paid $2 million in bribes to National Police detectives, prosecutors, the judge presiding at his criminal trial and several attorneys to ensure his acquittal in March and to unfreeze his accounts.
Apart from Gayus, four other witnesses also testified at Sjahril’s trial Thursday: police officials Sr. Comr. Wahyu Indra Pramugari, Sr. Comr. Eko Budi Sampurno and Syamsu Rizal, and Sjahril’s driver, Upang Supandi.
A key witness in Sjahril’s trial, Upang told the court he saw Sjahril carrying a brown bag, which Sjahril had picked up at the Sultan Hotel in South Jakarta, before going to Susno’s residence.
“After arriving at Susno’s home, my boss notified me that there was money in the bag,” Upang told the court. He added that Sjahril took the bag into Susno’s house after Susno arrived home.
