T

he government is set to hunt down Indonesian criminals hiding in Vietnam and Papua New Guinea (PNG), after the government and the House of Representatives began deliberating extradition treaties between Indonesia and the two countries.

The House is expected to ratify the treaties by the end of the session on Feb. 18, so that the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) can directly proceed with years of halted efforts to arrest Indonesian criminals hiding in the two countries, including fugitive Djoko Tjandra.

Djoko fled the country in 2009 a day before the Supreme Court sentenced him to two years imprisonment after being convicted of misusing Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds in the now defunct Bank Bali case.

In addition to the two-year sentence, the court also ordered him to pay Rp 546 billion (US$42.9 million) in restitution for illegally disbursing BLBI funds to Bank Bali in 1999, causing Rp 546 billion in state losses.

'€œOnce the House endorses the treaties, the AGO can immediately move on hunting down the fugitives,'€ Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly said on the sidelines of the deliberation meeting with House Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affairs and information on Monday.

Besides Djoko, the ratification would also enable the government to search for Samadikun Hartono, who was also involved in the BLBI case and is believed to be hiding in Vietnam, Yasonna added.

Although the two treaties are mainly aimed at bringing corrupt individuals to trial at home, lawmakers as well as the government have voiced a need to include stipulations allowing the country to search for political criminals, emphasizing the will to hunt Papuan separatists that may have fled to PNG.

'€œIt'€™s still being discussed because the government of PNG may have a different stance on what is considered political crime,'€ Commission I deputy chairman Hanafi Rais said.

'€œNo matter what, such treaties will be beneficial for us as well as the respective countries as they will boost cooperation among signatory countries,'€ said Yasonna said.

Indonesia has signed extradition treaties with Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, India as well as Thailand.

Commission I deliberated an extradition treaty with Singapore last year, but it was ditched at the last minute as Singapore required that the treaty also include defense cooperation between the two countries.

Samadikun was sentences to four years in jail and was required to pay Rp 169 billion in compensation to the state.

In 2003, the AGO was slammed by civil society organizations over strong indications that the former intentionally allowed him to escape the jail sentence through a medical check up abroad before the verdict was announced.

The government'€™s initiative to ratify the two extradition treaties immediately won the support of all of the 10 political factions at the House.

Unlike other discussions that saw debates among politicians, none of the lawmakers representing the 10 factions at Commission I criticized the importance of Indonesia having the extradition cooperations with PNG as well as Vietnam during the Monday meeting.

'€œIt will undoubtedly help us deal with organized cross-border crimes. This is the reason why the NasDem Party, without hesitation, strongly supported the government on this,'€ NasDem'€™s Supriyadin said.