Internal affairs to find evidence linked to ‘extorting’ officer

Taylor Kitsch: Hollywood actor. (AP/Jonathan Short)

Immigration Directorate General spokesman Maryoto Sumardi has said that the department’s internal affairs officers were seeking supporting evidence in relation to the event where an officer was accused of extortion.

“We will question witnesses and look for supporting evidence that can corroborate the allegations. We want to know what happened at that time,” Maryoto told The Jakarta Post on Thursday without further elaboration.

He said that up to this point, the officer, identified only as RE, had denied that he ever intended to extort or did anything that could be thought of as extorting Taylor Kitsch, a Hollywood actor en route to shoot his latest film in East Nusa Tenggara.

Maryoto confirmed that RE had been suspended from his post at the Ngurah Rai International airport.

The news about the extortion was widely circulated following Taylor’s statement in a TV interview that he had been extorted in a Philippines’ airport. After a series of clarifications, it turned out that it wasn’t the Philippines but Bali, Indonesia.