Aware of the fact that Indonesia has no extradition treaty with Papua New Guinea, the government says it will capitalize on its good diplomatic relations with the neighboring country to lobby for the return of fraud convict Djoko Tjandra.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government meant business when it said it wanted to bring Djoko home and he applauded the efforts of law enforcement agencies aiming to achieve that goal.

“Find him, arrest him and bring him back to the country!” Yudhoyono exclaimed on Wednesday at the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).

Yudhoyono said all fugitives in graft cases should be repatriated and forced to return all the money they had stolen from the state.

Also on Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Darmono said the government expected to hear soon from the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government concerning Djoko’s status.

Darmono said the government was now relying on the Indonesian Ambassador to PNG to obtain information about the convict.

Earlier on Wednesday, Darmono tried to contact the ambassador, but he got no response.

“He did not pick up my call, either on his home phone or cellular phone. But when we have information about what we should do next, we will immediately hold a meeting with our PNG counterparts to reach the best solution,” he said.

The AGO is stepping up its efforts to try to bring Djoko home from PNG.

Djoko was convicted of misusing Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds in the Bank Bali case. He fled to PNG one day before the Supreme Court sentenced him to prison for fraud in 2009.

The court sentenced both Djoko and former Bank Indonesia (BI) governor, Syahril Sabirin, to two years’ imprisonment and ordered Djoko to pay Rp 546 billion (US$57.7 million) in restitution for illegally disbursing BLBI funds to Bank Bali in 1999, causing Rp 546 billion in state losses.

Djoko has reportedly secured PNG citizenship. Peter Ilau, PNG’s Ambassador to Indonesia, said on July 12 that Djoko had obtained PNG citizenship in June.

Darmono said one of the solutions proposed by the AGO was to request mutual legal assistance from the PNG government and urge them to conduct an internal investigation on Djoko’s citizenship.

The AGO suspected that Djoko had falsified legal documents when applying for PNG citizenship, as Djoko was a fugitive and would have concealed information during his application process.

“We have to find which regulations he [allegedly] violated during his application so that the PNG government will know that he did not follow legal procedures. With that proof, the PNG authorities can send him back to Indonesia,” he said recently.

Some reports have stated that Djoko might have obtained a letter of recommendation from the law firm of former law and human rights minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, to get his new citizenship.

Yusril’s law firm reportedly cleared Djoko of any legal problems.

Darmono declined to comment on the speculation, adding that the AGO was investigating which parties had issued the recommendation.

“What we believe is that Djoko falsified documents to obtain the citizenship. We will investigate further to find out how exactly he achieved this,” he said.

Djoko left Indonesia on a chartered flight from Halim Perdanakusumah Airport in East Jakarta on June 10, just one day before the Supreme Court issued its decision on the AGO’s case review.

Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsudin said the government hoped that PNG would consider the mutual legal assistance proposal.

“We hope they will consider this. However, we respect PNG as a sovereign country with its own legal system and will not press them further on this issue,” Amir Syamsudin told reporters on Wednesday.(fzm)

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