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Media mogul implicated in website scandal
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) is to question media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo and his brother Hartono Tanoesoedibjo over an allegation the two had pressured a businessman to sign documents relating to a graft scandal at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry
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he Attorney General's Office (AGO) is to question media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo and his brother Hartono Tanoesoedibjo over an allegation the two had pressured a businessman to sign documents relating to a graft scandal at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.
Assistant attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendy said PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika (SRD) president director Yohanes Woworuntu confessed to signing the documents for an online administration system, currently at the center of an embezzlement case, under pressure from the two businessmen.
"Yohanes told us he had been forced to sign those documents (by Hartono and Hary). So we will confront them with his testimony, and compare it with theirs," Marwan said Sunday.
"The documents, including those for the online system, were all signed by Yohanes. We will find out who was influencing his actions all this time," he said.
Hartono, part-owner of SRD and a commissioner at Bhakti Investama where his older brother Hary sits as president commissioner, was questioned by the AGO last month. Bhakti Investama owns several media outlets in the country, including private TV stations RCTI, Global TV and TPI.
Yohanes claims he was a "scapegoat" in the case, and was forced to sign the contract between SRD and the cooperatives of the ministry's directorate general of public law administration. SRD is the ministry's business partner responsible for the operation of the online service system which was used improperly to embezzle funds.
"I was blamed for signing the documents in question when I actually signed them at the requests of other people," he said Friday.
"On Nov. 8, 2000, I had just come back from hospital after having a stoke, and Pak Hartono and Pak Hary came to my house and asked me to sign the contract. I signed it because I was under pressure," he said.
At the time, Yohanes' son and mother-in-law were suffering from cancer and he needed money to cover their medical costs.
Marwan said the AGO also alleged the ministry's cooperative head, Ali Amran Djanah, was similarly forced to sign the same contract.
The contract was signed on Nov. 8, 2000 between Yohanes and Ali Amran, the AGO data shows. "Several witnesses told prosecutors the cooperative's head was forced by his boss to sign the contract, so we'll also clarify this with Ali to find out which boss told him to do so," Marwan said.
The AGO has alleged the boss may have been either former director general Romli Atmasasmita or former justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
Yusril has faced questioning twice to clarify his decision to sign two ministerial decrees in 2000 that directly appointed SRD to build the website and another about the activation of the system.
The AGO is detaining Yohanes, Romli and his two successors Zulkarnain Yunus and Syamsuddin Manan Sinaga over accusations they embezzled funds from an online administration system, www.sisminbakum.com, run by the ministry's directorate general of public law administration.
