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n the aftermath of the extradition of corruption fugitive and former president commissioner of Bank Modern Samadikun Hartono late on Thursday, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) plans to reopen investigations into the 2002 Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) cases.

“We plan to start the probe into the BLBI cases providing any efforts that follow the extradition reveal new data to support the investigations,” KPK deputy chairman Saut Situmorang told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of an anticorruption event in Central Jakarta on Friday.

The National Intelligence Agency (BIN) secured on Friday the extradition of Samadikun, in the wake of his recent arrest in China. Samadikun will serve four years behind bars in Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta, as sentenced by the Supreme Court’s cessation ruling in 2003.

Saut added, however, that the antigraft body had to respect several rulings in relation to the BLBI cases, of which were “final and binding”.

According to Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) data made available to the Post, of 65 cases related to the BLBI, only 16 were concluded through a court ruling.

There are also 11 cases that have been ceased through the investigation-termination warrants, or SP3, mechanism, including a case implicating Sjamsul Nursalim, the owner of Bank Dagang Indonesia who purportedly embezzled Rp 27.5 trillion (US$2.08 billion) of the BLBI money.

“There were people who were named convicts and they were under obligation to pay their debt. The KPK’s foremost principle is in line with the due process of law, which says that a person cannot be indicted twice in the same case,” Saut said.

The cases emerged in 1998, when BI granted Rp 145.5 trillion in loans to help 48 troubled banks deal with the massive cash runs during the monetary crisis in the wake of then president Soeharto’s downfall. However, around 95 percent of the disbursed money was eventually embezzled by obligors, including Bank Modern.

In 2002, then president Megawati Sukarnoputri provided leniency to 21 banking magnates by issuing “release and discharge” letters, freeing them from obligation to pay their BI debts as stated in a 2002 presidential decree.

ICW researcher Emerson Yuntho said the extradition of Samadikun should provide sufficient impetus to law enforcement agencies, including the KPK, “to probe unresolved BLBI cases and take a closer look at the ceased cases”.

“The KPK has the authority to start a probe into every ceased case, including that implicating Sjamsul Nursalim, if there is new substantial evidence,” Emerson said.

Financial transparency activist Yenny Sucipto said law enforcement agencies, especially the KPK, were responsible for investigating the long-delayed BLBI cases, instead of offering leniency to those fugitives. (mos)