Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno obeyed the summons from the Jakarta Police on Thursday to be questioned as a witness in a land fraud and embezzlement case implicating his former business partner.

The suspect in the case is Andreas Tjahjadi, who was Sandiaga’s business partner in rattan export company PT Japirex, which owned the land involved.

Sandiaga, who was questioned for four hours, said he had provided all necessary information and it should be sufficient for the police investigators.

“I am very confident that I am not involved in the unlawful case,” Sandiaga said Thursday at the Jakarta Police headquarters.

The case came to light when a woman named Fransiska Kumalawati Susilo filed a report to the Jakarta Police in March last year accusing Sandiaga and Andreas of committing land fraud and embezzlement in 2012. Fransiska was authorized by Japirex’s former director Djoni Hidayat to file the report.

The case occurred when Japirex was liquidated in 2009. At that time, both Sandiaga and Andreas had shares in the company. Sandiaga reportedly owned 40 percent of Japirex shares and the rest were owned by Andreas.

During the liquidation period, Japirex had three plots of land covering a total area of around 1 hectare. Two of the land certificates were under Japirex’s name, while the other one was under Djoni’s.

Then in 2012, the liquidation team led by Andreas sold the plots of land in Curug, Tangerang, to PT Sinar Semesta Perkasa, including a 3,000-square-meter plot of land under Djoni’s name.

All three plots of land were sold at Rp 12 billion (US$840,000), which was transferred to Andreas’ bank account. Later, Djoni reportedly received Rp 3.4 billion for the sale of the plots, proven by a receipt he signed.

However, Fransiska claimed that Djoni never received the money, nor did he sign a receipt.

She added that the case was intended to be resolved out of court, but this did not happen because the other parties did not show a gesture of “good intention.”

Sandiaga, who was also one of the commissioners in the company, acknowledged that he knew Djoni, who was one of the company’s directors, and said he never had any problems with him until the Jakarta election. He suspected the case was politically motivated, as it was brought up during the Jakarta election campaign period.

“But I will think positively. Besides, this case is being handled professionally by the police and of course we support them,” he said.

Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said the police needed to question Sandiaga because Andreas mentioned his name during questioning.

“The point is we have named Andreas a suspect and he mentioned Pak Sandiaga Uno so we need to question him,” Argo said Thursday.

The police named Andreas a suspect on Oct. 19 last year. According to the police, Andreas had admitted that he committed the crime.

Andreas is currently being detained at the police headquarters in South Jakarta. He is charged with Article 372 of the Criminal Code on embezzlement and fraud with a maximum punishment of four years’ imprisonment and a Rp 900 million fine.

In addition, Fransiska filed a new report on Jan. 8 on alleged fabrication because Djoni’s land had an ownership transfer certificate under PT Japirex without a sale and purchase certificate.

Sandiaga had twice previously received a summons to be a witness in the case. The police sent the summons the first time on Oct. 11 last year, but he could not attend, and his lawyer asked for postponement because he had to prepare for his inauguration following his victory in the gubernatorial election, which was five days later.

The police sent the second summons on Jan. 15.

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