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Police to question at least 15 witnesses regarding AGO fire
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD has asked the public to refrain from speculating about the cause of the fire at the Attorney General’s Office.
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Firefighters douse a fire at the Attorney General's Office in Jakarta on Saturday. (AFP/Adek Berry)
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uthorities have launched an investigation into the cause of a fire that ravaged the main building of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, and are set to question at least 15 witnesses, according to the Jakarta Police.
The witnesses include building security officers, construction workers and AGO staff.
“We will use their information later as investigation material and also for the examination by the forensics team,” Jakarta Police general crimes unit director Sr. Comr. Tubagus Ade Hidayat said on Sunday, as quoted by kompas.com.
He added that a joint team from the National Police’s forensic laboratory and those handling the Indonesia Automatic Fingerprint Identification System had been deployed to the location.
The fire broke out on the sixth floor of the building before quickly engulfing the entire structure, including the intelligence office and the office of Pinangki Sirna Malasari, a prosecutor who was recently in the spotlight following meetings with graft convict Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra.
This has led some to suspect the fire may be linked to ongoing AGO investigations.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD, however, asked the public to refrain from speculation about the cause of the fire.
“Just keep an eye [on the case] together, there’s no need to speculate this was done to protect this or that [person],” he said at a press conference on Sunday night.
Mahfud said all case files were safe and vowed the government would be transparent with regard to this incident.
Meanwhile, AGO spokesman Hari Setiyono said that the AGO would coordinate with Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan regarding the renovation of the destroyed building.
“The renovation, of course, must be in accordance with regional regulations, as stipulated by the Jakarta governor regarding cultural heritage sites,” he said.
Separately, the Jakarta Culture and Tourism Agency’s cultural protection division head, Norviadi Setio Husodo, explained that, while the AGO building had not been officially classified as a cultural heritage site, it was located in a designated cultural restoration area and was in the process of becoming an official heritage site.
“Therefore, it is treated as a cultural heritage site,” he said. (syk)
