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uthorities say fuel import businessman Muhammad Reza Chalid has left the country as he was being dragged further into two separate investigations, at the House of Representatives ethics council and the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO), over an alleged conspiracy with House Speaker Setya Novanto to broker shares and projects in a mining company contract negotiation.

He skipped summonses at the House and the AGO, on Thursday and Monday respectively, and the two bodies found it difficult to trace his whereabouts to send second summonses for the two probes.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said on Tuesday that the ministry had tried to trace Reza'€™s whereabouts and found that he had left the country four days ago.

Although he was part of an ongoing graft investigation at the AGO, the ministry, which manages the immigration department, had yet to issue a travel ban for the politically wired businessman because the AGO had not filed such a request with the ministry.

With Reza reportedly holding dual citizenship, Yasonna emphasized that Reza was still an Indonesian and had not changed his nationality at the immigration office.

'€œFirst, he is an Indonesian citizen with an Indonesian passport; [but] he is not in Indonesia,'€ Yasonna said after a plenary Cabinet meeting on Tuesday at Bogor Palace, West Java.

'€œThere has yet to be any letter [requesting a travel ban for Reza],'€ Yasonna added.

Reza and Setya have come under public scrutiny after Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said reported them to the House'€™s ethics council for allegedly attempting to profiteer from contract negotiations between the government and PT Freeport Indonesia, a local unit of US mining firm Freeport-McMoRan.

Sudirman submitted a recording of a conversation between Setya, Reza and Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin, in which Reza was heard proposing that the company give shares to President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo '€” through Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan '€” and to Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Setya was heard claiming that Luhut was key to Jokowi'€™s approval.

The AGO said it was expecting Reza'€™s testimony as one of the parties who had conspired with Setya.

'€œThe person in question has been summoned but he has not come [to the AGO]. He was invited to come on Monday,'€ AGO spokesman Amir Yanto said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, junior attorney general for special crimes Arminsyah responded to reports that the ethics council wished to take back the original recording handed over by Maroef to the AGO during his first questioning last week.

The recording is currently being verified by experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), commissioned by the AGO.

'€œThey are privy to the recording but we received it from Pak Maroef, so if they want to borrow it then we need to hand it over to Pak Maroef because it was not a confiscation,'€ he said.

Separately, National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said neither the ethics council nor the AGO had requested assistance to find Reza.

Badrodin also claimed the police were ready to verify the recording but that they were still waiting for an official request from either the ethics council or the AGO.

'€œWe'€™re ready if they ask for it. As of now, there has been no such request,'€ he said.

Due to his political influence at the House, the majority of council members decided to delay issuing a second summons for Reza, claiming he would be summoned after the verification process was completed.

Ethics council deputy chief Junimart Girsang of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said he and seven other council members wanted to grill Reza as soon as possible without having to wait for the verification but the council'€™s remaining nine members opposed the plan.

'€œHe must be questioned because he was the one who predominantly talked in the recording. We have no choice but to wait for the verification to be done,'€ Junimart said.

Ethics council deputy chairman Sufmi Dasco Ahmad of the Gerindra Party backed Reza in the case, saying the council could not issue any summons before confirming that it was indeed Reza with Setya and Maroef in the conversation.

Junimart said it would be better to confirm the fact directly with Reza at an ethics council hearing instead of delaying the hearing by submitting the recording to the police for verification.

The council grilled Maroef on Thursday without having his voice verified by the police.
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