The family of Irzen Octa, the politician who died while meeting with Citibank debt collectors, will sue the bank for damages, according to their lawyer.

Noted attorney O.C. Kaligis, who is representing Octa’s family, said that the family would file suit against Citibank this week to seek compensation for Octa’s death.

“We will file the lawsuit this week with the Central Jakarta District Court. We will seek damages for [Octa’s] death. What about the future of his children?” Kaligis told reporters.

The lawsuit would name Citibank’s headquarters in New York as one of the defendants, Kaligis said, declining to disclose the amount of damages Octa’s family would seek.

Separately, Octa’s family requested a second autopsy of Octa’s body.

Kaligis said that the police had issued two conflicting autopsy reports.

Soon after the autopsy on Octa was completed, a police official, allegedly quoting from the autopsy report, said that Octa died after sustaining a blow to his nose.

Another police official later said, apparently quoting from a second autopsy report, that Octa died from brain damage.

“When did the doctor perform an autopsy? If it was performed once how can they have two different results? [The doctors] should have been smarter than to issue a report less than three hours after the autopsy,” Kaligis said.

The autopsy reports were apparently signed by Ade Firmansyah, a physician at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, according to Kaligis.

Kaligis said that he had not received a convincing clarification from Ade on the different results.

“That’s why we decided to go to the police to ask them to perform the autopsy again,” Kaligis said.

South Jakarta Police spokesman Adj. Comr. Aswin said the police could not discuss the autopsy as the case was still under investigation.

Octa, who was National Unity Party (PPB) secretary-general, died while talking to Citibank debt collectors about his credit card balance, which had unexpectedly ballooned from Rp 48 million (US$5,300) to Rp 100 million, according to Octa’s friends.

The police have named a contract debt collector supervisor employed by Citibank, D.T., and three debt collectors, H, D and A, as suspects in the investigation.

Meanwhile, Citibank’s Indonesian corporate affairs chief, Ditta Amahorseya, said the bank did not know about the different autopsy results.

“We are aware of media articles that there were two differing initial forensic reports but this is a matter for the police to confirm or deny,” Ditta told The Jakarta Post in an e-mail on Tuesday.

“Citibank is in no position to comment on this, but we can tell you that our internal investigation has found no indication of violent behavior toward the late Irzen Octa. We have been cooperating fully with the police by submitting the results of our investigation,” she added.

Ditta also said that Citibank had made a friendly gesture to Octa’s family by offering to cut his debt by a large percentage.

“Citibank has offered to cut the debt by 40 percent of the principal value for the late Irzen. This policy is part of a debt settlement scheme offered by Citibank to its clients,” she said.

______________________

Letter to the Editor: Clarification from Citibank

I refer to your article headlined "Family seeks damages from Citibank" on page 9 of Wednesday's edition of The Jakarta Post.

Your story quoted me as saying that "Citibank had made a friendly gesture to Irzen Octa's family by offering to cut his debt by a large percentage". This is incorrect.

Citibank actually offered Octa himself several packages to help him repay his debts to the bank since June 2008, when his record of delinquency began.

We made calls,but many timeswere unable to reach him.Hence, our debt recovery agentsvisitedhim several times.

It was then that we offered to help him repay his debts by reducing his principal by 40 percent. We also offered five other repayment packages, but he did not accept any of these.

The 40 percent discount offer was therefore made directly to Octa and not to his family after their bereavement.

Ditta Amahorseya
Director, Country Corporate Affairs Head
Citi Indonesia
Jakarta

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