M

EDAN: The North Sumatra Prosecutor’s Office used force in its arrest of the head of the public works agency of Batubara regency Irwansyah in Medan on Friday for his alleged involvement in a Rp 1.8 billion (US$210,650) graft case.

Irwansyah was accused of embezzling the funds allocated to build a supporting office at the administration in 2009.

Jufri Nasution, a prosecutor in charge of special crimes, said that they had forcefully taken Irwansyah from his house because he had never responded to a summons for questioning. “He always evaded the summons on the pretext that he was on duty,” he said.

Irwansyah was reported to have strayed from construction specifications of the building by using wood, instead of concrete, supposedly to maintain its Malay nuance. However, the alteration, according to Jufri, caused a loss
of Rp 1.8 billion to the state.