Bintan official grilled over bribery

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 04/12/2008 11:17 AM | National

Bintan regional secretary Azirwan faced questioning as a suspect in the alleged bribery case involving House of Representatives member Al Amin Nasution for the first time Friday.

Azirwan was taken from the South Jakarta Police Office, where he is being detained, to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) office in South Jakarta at around 11 a.m.

The other suspect in the case, lawmaker Amin of the United Development Party, failed to attend the questioning due to illness.

The KPK arrested Amin, a member of the House's Commission IV overseeing forestry, in a luxury hotel early Wednesday as he was receiving Rp 4 million (US$434) in cash from Azirwan. The investigators also confiscated Rp 67 million in cash from Amin.

A further S$33,000 in cash was also seized, but the KPK has not yet determined whether it is connected with the alleged bribery.

KPK deputy chairman Moch. Jasin said the investigators would not be influenced by rumors the Rp 4 million and Rp 67 million was recess money for House members.

"Thus far, we have enough evidence to declare both Amin and Azirwan as suspects in the case," he said Friday.

Jasin said the investigators were focusing on questioning all witnesses and suspects before seeking explanations from nine other House members who visited Bintan before discussing the regency's forestry conversion proposal.

The members' visit to Bintan was reported to the KPK by the House's disciplinary council.

"We will summon people based on facts, not on rumors," he said.

The arrests were made in connection with the Bintan administration's request for Forestry Ministry approval to convert around 200 hectares of a 7,300-hectare conservation forest into an office complex.

Amin and Azirwan were arrested just hours after Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Ka'ban approved the proposal at a Commission IV meeting, which Amin attended.

Amin's arrest has not affected the ministry's decision to allow the office development in the conservation forest.

Ka'ban said ministry officials and forestry experts had conducted an extensive study to decide whether or not the administrative complex could be built on the land.

"This forest conversion met all requirements stated in the 1999 Law on Forestry, which stipulates that forest conversion is possible as long as an extensive study is done," he said Friday, as quoted by Antara. (ewd)

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