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Indonesian fugitive arrested in China after 13 years at large
An Indonesian fugitive who fled during his Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) case, Samadikun Hartono, was arrested in China last week after 13 years on the run from his prison sentence for embezzlement.
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The head of State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Sutiyoso delivers a press statement on the arrest of Indonesian fugitive Samadikun Hartono from Berlin on Sunday. Samadikun, convicted of embezzling Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI), was arrested in Shanghai, China, on Thursday.
(Photo Courtesy of Cabinet Secretary Website/Deni S)
A
n Indonesian fugitive who fled after his Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) trial, Samadikun Hartono, was arrested in China last week after 13 years on the run from a prison sentence for embezzlement.
The arrest of the former Bank Modern president commissioner was achieved thanks to cooperation between the governments of Indonesia and China, reported Sutiyoso, the head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), on Sunday during his visit to Germany with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
"At midnight on April 14, SH [Samadikun Hartono] came to the planned location and was detained by Chinese authorities," Sutiyoso said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Monday.
Explaining the chronology of the arrest, Sutiyoso said that BIN had received a tip-off about Samadikun's whereabouts in Shanghai. However, it still proved difficult to confirm the information and actually locate Samadikun.
The fugitive was not always in Shanghai, Sutiyoso said, and his office needed more accurate information before it could find him.
Sutiyoso visited China on April 7 to be a keynote speaker at a terrorism-related event attended by representatives from Asian countries.
"I used that opportunity to meet and speak with Chinese ministry officials to ask for support in arresting SH," he said.
More information then came in, suggesting that Samadikun would attend last Sunday's Chinese F1 Grand Prix.
Sutiyoso, who had by then returned to Jakarta, reported this information to Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan who sent several BIN and law enforcement officials to China.
The officials, along with Chinese counterparts, closely monitored Samadikun's possible locations for a few days. The fugitive then showed up at the Grand Prix site on Thursday.
Samadikun ran away from Indonesia in 2003 following a Supreme Court ruling that sentenced him to four years in prison for the misuse of BLBI funds for Bank Modern, which cost the state Rp 169 billion (US$12.8 million). Samadikun's Bank Modern went bankrupt during the 1997 monetary crisis. The funds were part of Rp 145.5 trillion in loans disbursed by BI in 1998 to help 48 troubled banks during the crisis. Ninety-five percent of the loans were embezzled.
According to the AGO's website, Samadikun lived in a luxury apartment in Singapore and still owned film studios in Vietnam and China while he was on the run. (rin)
