F

ormer House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto has maintained that he played no part in an alleged conspiracy involving gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia (Freeport).

Following a seven-hour questioning session conducted by investigators from the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) in South Jakarta on Thursday, Setya denied that he had promised to help with the extension of Freeport'€™s mining contract, set to expire in 2021, in exchange for shares in the company.

'€œWhat is clear is that I never asked for any shares and never abused the President or Vice-President'€™s name. Such accusations are untrue. Everything now is in the hands of the investigators, to whom I have already told everything,'€ he told reporters on Thursday.

Setya resigned last month from his leadership position at the House to avoid political embarrassment after a report filed by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said to the House'€™s ethics council accused the former speaker of involvement in the conspiracy.

A recorded conversation Sudirman submitted along with the report gave details of a meeting Setya had with then Indonesia president director of Freeport Maroef Sjamsoeddin and tycoon Riza Chalid.

A voice believed to be that of Setya'€™s was heard asking for an 11 percent share for President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and a nine percent share for Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Setya also said that he was ready to meet a future summons from prosecutors.

'€œYes, I am always prepared [for another summons],'€ he said.

On Monday, House Commission III overseeing legal affairs established a working committee to assist the AGO'€™s investigation into Setya with Democratic Party lawmaker Benny K. Harman serving as its chairman.

Benny said the committee would not interfere with the criminal investigation already being conducted by the AGO, and would instead oversee how the AGO would handle the conspiracy case.

Meanwhile, the AGO'€™s junior attorney for special crimes Arminsyah said that Setya had confirmed during the questioning session that a meeting with Maroef and Riza had occurred but the senior Golkar politician continued to deny that the voice on the recording was his.

'€œSetya denied that it was his voice on that recording, and it'€™s within his rights to do so. We are still looking for other evidence and we have already asked an expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology [ITB] to analyze the recording and see if it matches with Maroef'€™s testimony,'€ he said, referring to Maroef'€™s confirmation at a prior questioning session that the voice on the recording was that of Setya'€™s.

Arminsyah said that based on findings from the forensics expert, there was no doubt that Setya'€™s voice was the voice heard on the recording.

Although the AGO'€™s preliminary investigation has led prosecutors to believe that a conspiracy did occur during the meeting, Arminsyah acknowledged that they had yet to gather enough evidence to move forward with the investigation and name suspects.

'€œWe need at least two pieces of evidence [before we name a suspect] and at present we only have one and that is Maroef'€™s testimony. We will be more resolute once we collect all the evidence,'€ he said.

Arminsyah said that Setya had asked to leave the questioning session early on Thursday because he had to leave for West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) to join a Golkar Party meeting there.

'€œHe will be questioned again either on Tuesday or Wednesday,'€ he said, adding that Setya had pledged to attend the next session.
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