Eddy Tansil. JP

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) is targeting to arrest 25 corruption fugitives, including Eddy Tansil and 13 Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) debtors.

The AGO, in coordination with the Foreign Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry, has said it is now focusing on bringing back fugitives who fled abroad.

The institution has renewed its attempts to arrest more corruption fugitives following the recent success of bringing back BLBI swindler Adrian Kiki Ariawan from Australia.

The Australian government authorized the extradition early this month after the High Court of Australia upheld a 2009 Perth court ruling declaring Kiki eligible for extradition.

Back in 2002, Adrian, former president director of the now defunct Bank Surya, was found guilty in absentia of misappropriating Rp 1.9 trillion (US$155.8 million) of state funds under the BLBI plan in 1997. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The extradition must be conducted on Feb. 16, 2014 at the latest. Attorney General Basrief Arief said he hoped to extradite Adrian in mid January.

Antigraft activists have lauded the AGO's move but said the government must do more to achieve its goal.

Agus Sunaryanto, the head of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), said the government must devise another way of repatriating the fugitives, as some were hiding in countries with no extradition agreements with Indonesia.

'The government's efforts to repatriate the fugitives and recover stolen assets has hit stumbling blocks due to the absence of agreements and the efforts of some mafias to protect them,' he said on Sunday.

'We appreciate the government's success in gaining approval for Adrian's extradition, but we need more than that. The government must improve its ability to bring corruption fugitives back.'

Other than Adrian, among the fugitives sought by the AGO is Eddy Tansil, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzling $565 million in state funds in a credit scam channeled by Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) to his Golden Key Group.

Eddy fled Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta on May 4, 1996.

'We've received information he's in China. The AGO, through the Law and Human Rights Ministry, sent a letter requesting his extradition to the government of China in 2011,' Basrief said.

He declined to reveal China's response to the extradition request.

National Police criminal investigations chief Comr. Gen. Suhardi Alius said the force would back up the government's efforts to detain Eddy.

'We're ready. We will work as a team set up by the Law and Human Rights Ministry,' he said on Friday.

From the 25 corruption fugitives, there are also two owners of Bank Century, Saudi national Hesham Al Warraq Thalat and British citizen Rafat Ali Rizfi.

Bank Century, now renamed Bank Mutiara, was the recipient of a Rp 6.76 trillion controversial bailout between 2008 and 2009. Hesham and Rafat sent some of the bailout funds to offshore accounts in Hong Kong and Switzerland.

Hesham and Rafat have each been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for bank fraud that led to the disbursement of the bailout funds.

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