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AGO and Hary Tanoe engage in feud

An investigator from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has filed a police report against media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo for allegedly sending threats through text message since the beginning of the year

Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, January 29, 2016

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AGO and Hary Tanoe engage in feud

A

n investigator from the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) has filed a police report against media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo for allegedly sending threats through text message since the beginning of the year.

Head of the AGO'€™s subdirectorate for special crimes investigation, Yulianto, told reporters that he believed the threats were connected to a graft case currently being investigated by the AGO implicating a telecommunications company that Hary once owned, PT Mobile-8 Telecom.

Yulianto said that he first received a threatening text message from an unindentified sender at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 5.

'€œMas Yulianto, we will eventually prove who is wrong and who is right. Who is a professional and who is a thug. You have to remember that power will not last forever. One of the reasons I entered politics was to stamp out law enforcers who abuse powers wantonly or for transactional purposes. Mark my words, I will lead this country and that is when Indonesia will be swept clean,'€ he read out the contents of the first text message at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Although Yulianto claimed he ignored the first text message, another message was sent to him on Jan. 7 through smartphone chat service WhatsApp.

Yulianto continued to ignore the second message until he received a third one that read, '€œI actually have nothing to do with the Mobile-8 [case] because this is an operational issue and so it is part of an executive responsibility. However, since the investigation has been engineered so that it will go into my direction, I am trying to get to the bottom of it'€.

Earlier this week, Attorney General M Prasetyo briefed lawmakers of House of Representatives Commission III overseeing law on the threatening text messages.

Prasetyo discussed the text message when asked by lawmakers to give an update on the Freeport conspiracy involving former House speaker Setya Novanto.

Commission III lawmakers blasted Prasetyo for the disclosure and considered it inappropriate for a state official to make a statement based on unverified reports.

In the past seven years, the AGO has been investigating the restitution of tax refunds for Mobile-8, the network provider of Fren'€™s postpaid services.

The case emerged when Mobile-8, which was at the time owned by Hary, acquired a tax restitution of Rp 10.75 billion (US$774,776) in 2009. In an attempt to acquire such restitution, Mobile-8 allegedly made a series of fictitious telecommunications equipment purchases from Surabaya-based telecommunications provider company PT Djaja Nusantara Komunikasi (DNK) between 2007 and 2009.

Yulianto reported Hary for allegedly violating Article 29 of Law No. 11/2008 on electronic information and transactions, which stipulates that anyone who sends threats to a specific person electronically could face a maximum prison sentence of 12 years and a fine of Rp 2 billion.

Last week, Prasetyo denied the conflict was the result of a rivalry between NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh and Hary, who is the chairman of the United Indonesia Party (Perindo). Prasetyo was once a member of NasDem'€™s central board.

Syafril Nasution, corporate secretary of Hary'€™s MNC Group, also previously denied his superior had sent threats to the AGO.

'€œDoes it even make sense? Pak Hary Tanoe is not a small-time businessman. He knows his place as a public figure. Why would he do something like that?'€

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