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Govt vows to keep orbital slot amid satellite fiasco
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Illustration of a satellite. (Shutterstock/Tatiana Shepeleva)
T
he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) continues to investigate a satellite-procurement scheme by the Defense Ministry to fill a strategic orbital slot in 2015 as the government reiterates its commitment to maintaining the rights to manage the slot in the interest of national security.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had previously instructed the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister to resolve the issue after the government faced a series of lawsuits relating to the allegedly unauthorized lease and procurement of satellites to fill the orbital slot at 123 degrees East longitude.
On Tuesday, AGO investigators seized items of evidence from PT Dini Nusa Kusuma (DNK), a private company which, in 2018, won the license from the government to fill the orbital slot but then failed to secure the necessary funds to build and launch a satellite.
The evidence included three containers of documents and some 30 items of electronic equipment. The searches were carried out at two of DNK’s offices in South Jakarta and Central Jakarta, as well as at an apartment belonging to the company’s managing director, identified only as SW.
On the same day, the AGO team questioned SW, who, at the time of the procurement, was also a member of the expert team at the Defense Ministry, as well as the company’s president director, identified only as W. They were among at least 16 witnesses who have been interrogated by the AGO in the case, including representatives of other private companies and ministry officials.
The AGO however stopped short when asked whether investigators would interrogate a number of high-ranking officials who served when the case began in 2015, including then-defense minister Ryamizard Ryacudu.
Civil-military collusion?
