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Agency seeks authority to freeze terrorism-related assets
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Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) chairman Muhammad Yusuf listens during a hearing at the House of Representatives complex in Jakarta on Feb. 11. (Tempo/Dhemas Reviyanto)
T
he Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) has urged lawmakers to allow the institution, with the help of law enforcers, to freeze without delay suspicious funds or other assets of terrorists and people who finance terrorism.
The proposed inclusion of articles in the draft revision of the 2003 terrorism bill would articulate a UN Security Council resolution relating to the prevention and suppression of the financing of terrorist acts, which is binding for all member states. The resolution requires countries to freeze the assets of anyone listed as a terrorist by the UN, immediately and without a court process, PPATK chairman Muhammad Yusuf said.
"Our law upholds the principle of the presumption of innocence. Law enforcers cannot immediately freeze assets without a legal basis and therefore we are now facing difficulties in implementing the resolution. We want it to be included in the law to simplify and strengthen the mechanism," Yusuf told journalists.
Although Indonesia has inserted the resolution into Law No. 9/2013 on the prevention and eradication of terrorism financing, the Terrorism Law has yet to include and simplify the mechanism. The PPATK should reach a joint decision with the Attorney General, the National Police chief and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) before attempting to block suspicious funds, Yusuf said.
The terror bill also needed to include articles that strengthened investigators' authority to order financial institutions to delay transactions of people suspected of supporting and financing terrorism, Yusuf said. (bbn)
