Oil tycoon Muhammad Reza Chalid failed to show up for the second time for a hearing about House of Representative Speaker Setya Novanto's ethics violation case at 10 a.m. Monday at the House ethics council in Senayan, Central Jakarta.

House ethics council deputy chief Junimart Girsang said the council had decided to postpone Reza'€™s testimony as a witness in the Setya case and would determine whether it still needed to hear the businessman'€™s testimony in an internal meeting later today.

Junimart said the ethics council decided to delay Reza'€™s hearing after he did not appear at 10 a.m. as scheduled. The council gave him more than 30 minutes to wait for his arrival and suspended the session again for another 15 minutes.

'€œHe had neither arrived nor given confirmation he would be present to either the council or its secretariat,'€ he told reporters on Monday.

Junimart also said that with no sign of his presence, the council'€™s leaders and members finally agreed to close the hearing session. The lawmaker said apart from determining whether it still needed to hear Reza'€™s statements, the House ethics council would also decide whether it would forcefully summon the oil tycoon through the National Police.

'€œWe will discuss those matters during our internal meeting on Monday evening,'€ said Junimart.

Reza, who is dubbed Indonesia'€™s oil godfather, has reportedly fled abroad, according to data from the Law and Human Rights Ministry. He missed the council'€™s first summons last week.

Also on Monday, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan was also scheduled to testify on the Setya case at 1 p.m., but by 2 p.m. the minister had not yet showed up.

House ethics council deputy chief Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said on Friday the council needed to summon Luhut because his name was mentioned several times in an audio recording of a conversation between Setya Novanto and gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin in a meeting in Jakarta on June 8, which was apparently attended by Reza.

"We hope he will give an explanation that can help this process. His name was mentioned a lot of times in the recording," Dasco said on Friday. In the recording, Luhut'€™s name was reportedly mentioned 66 times. (ebf)(+)

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