Guarded by members of the police's Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim), Djoko, in handcuffs and wearing an orange shirt, arrived at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in East Jakarta on Thursday evening. He was then taken to Bareskrim’s headquarters for detention.

 

Bareskrim head Comr. Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo said the arrest had been made possible through cooperation between the Indonesian police and their Malaysian counterparts.

 

“The National Police chief sent a letter to the Malaysian police to [ask for] help with searching for the fugitive and, Alhamdulillah [thank God], we managed to locate him this afternoon,” he said in a televised statement after arriving at the airport.

 

“This is also the answer to public doubts about whether the police could catch him, and today we have [delivered on] our commitment to arrest Djoko Tjandra,” Listyo said as he thanked the Malaysian police for their cooperation in the arrest.

 

The police had been planning the arrest of Djoko for more than a week, according to Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD. He said he was first informed on July 20 about the police's plan to capture the convict.

 

That day, Listyo went to Mahfud's office and told him that Bareskrim would cooperate with its Malaysian counterpart to make the arrest.

 

"He told us that the police would begin the operation that evening as they had already determined [Djoko's] whereabouts," Mahfud said on Thursday.

 

The minister said only President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and National Police chief Gen. Idham Azis had known about the operation initially.

 

The South Jakarta District Court has dropped a case review petition filed by Djoko against his conviction after he repeatedly failed to appear at the hearings.

 

The court announced the decision hours before the police brought the fugitive back to the country.

 

Suharno, the court's spokesperson, said the judges handling the case had issued the ruling on Tuesday and had notified the prosecutors, Djoko and his legal team about the decision.

 

"The ruling states that the request for a case review from the applicant, or convict Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra, cannot be accepted and the case dossier will not be forwarded to the Supreme Court," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

 

Suharno said the court could not accept the plea as Djoko – who had filed the request for the case review in early June – had failed to appear at the relevant hearings.

 

The court had summoned Djoko four times, but he reportedly claimed he could not attend because of poor health.

 

With his absence, the court said, Djoko had violated Supreme Court Circular No.1/2012 stipulating that case review requests submitted by lawyers without the convict present would not be accepted.

 

Djoko's lawyers had demanded that the case review hearings be conducted online because of what they said was their client’s bad health. Prosecutors, however, rejected the demand, citing the same Supreme Court circular that the court later cited in its ruling.

 

But Mahfud said Djoko could still file another case review because the court had not officially rejected the plea but had merely dropped the case because the administrative requirements had not been fulfilled.

 

"There is a possibility that Djoko will resubmit his case review request to the court. However, once he files his plea, it is no longer under the government's jurisdiction because the judiciary is under the Supreme Court," he said.

 

Tama S. Langkun, a researcher from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), applauded the court's decision to drop the case review request, adding that the convict did not deserve a review as he had fled to avoid serving his sentence.

 

"However, the case is not over as the convict has not served his sentence yet," he told the Post on Thursday.

 

Djoko was first arrested in September 1999 for his involvement in the high-profile Bank Bali corruption case. He was acquitted by the South Jakarta District Court in 2000.

 

After the AGO filed a request for review, the Supreme Court sentenced Djoko to two years of prison in 2009 and ordered him to pay Rp 546 billion (US$54 million) in restitution.

 

However, Djoko fled to Papua New Guinea a day before the court ruling and remained at large until Thursday.

 

Djoko recently made headlines for having managed to return to the country undetected and request a case review of his conviction with the South Jakarta District Court in early June. He reportedly filed his plea after obtaining a new electronic ID card and passport, in addition to having his Interpol red notice status lifted.

 

The failure to detect Djoko's sudden return to Indonesia in June has implicated three high-ranking police generals who were removed last week for their alleged roles in helping the convict travel within the country.

 

Of the three, only Brig. Gen. Prasetyo Utomo has been named a suspect by the police for allegedly issuing forged travel letters for Djoko in the one-star general's capacity as the head of Bareskrim's Civil Servant Investigator Supervisory and Coordination Bureau.

 

On Thursday evening, the National Police named Djoko's lawyer, Anita Kolopaking, a suspect and brought multiple charges against her for her alleged role in using the forged letters to help Djoko travel and for allegedly assisting a criminal on the run.

 

“The police should examine the possibility that more National Police top brass are involved in covering Djoko Tjandra’s tracks,” the ICW said in a statement on Friday. 

 

The group also urged the police to name Djoko a suspect for allegedly forging a letter for his personal interests as stipulated in Article 263 of the Criminal Code.