Susno charged as ringleader in graft cases

Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 09/30/2010 10:05 AM 

Former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji has been charged with orchestrating graft and receiving bribes while in office and now faces a maximum penalty of  life in prison.

Getting hot: Former National Police chief detective
 Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji wipes his brow while  hearing
 the indictment read out by prosecutors during his graft
trial  at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday.
 JP/Wendra Ajistyatama

At his trial on Wednesday, prosecutors accused Susno of violating the anticorruption law, the Criminal Code on receiving bribes and a National Police chief memo, also on law enforcers receiving bribes. If proven guilty of all charges, Susno could be handed a life sentence under the corruption law.

“The prosecution has managed to gather convincing evidence that shows Susno abused his position as a civil servant for gratifications,” prosecutor Arbagtyo Rohan told the trial at the  South Jakarta District Court.

Susno was indicted on two charges: the first was that he, as chief detective, received Rp 500 million (US$56,000) from  lawyer Haposan Hutagalung to engender an investigation into  allegations of fraud in the arwana fish nursery case, to favor the latter’s client, a Singaporean called Ho Kian Kuat, a business rival of arwana.

Prosecutors said Susno had received the bribe through his close associate, Sjahril Djohan, a figure recently revealed  to the public as a case broker based at the National Police headquarters without an official position. 

The second charge against Susno relates to his position as West Java Police chief in 2008. He was accused of embezzling the police security budget for the governor’s election from the West Java governor’s office, totalling Rp 27.7 billion.

Susno was suspected to have skimmed around Rp 8.3 billion from the budget, giving himself a part of the funds and disbursing the rest among several others said to have assisted him in the process.

At least seven people were said to have received funds from Susno.  Of those seven, prosecutors have only identified Maman AR Pasya, the head of finance at the West Java Police office.

Prosecutor Rohan said further that the initiative in these cases of graft came from Susno himself. In the Arwana case, for example, Susno had asked Sjahril what he would get if he agreed to conduct the investigation in favor of Haposan’s client.

Prosecutors cited Susno as saying to Sjahril, “This is a big case, bang [brother], how come it’s just zero [value]?”

In response, the indictment said, on Dec. 4, 2008, Sjahril met Susno at his house to deliver Rp 500 million from Haposan. Prosecutors said Susno accepted the money and promised to investigate arwana.

Several days later, Susno sent two police investigators to the arwana nursery facility in Riau. The prosecutors added Susno then ordered the investigator to seize the facility and name suspects despite a lack of initial evidence.

Regarding the governor’s election security budget, prosecutors said it was Susno who ordered police finance head Maman to disburse the money, which had been kept in Maman’s personal bank account. 

The case first came to light when  the alleged broker Sjahril  told police that he had given Rp 500 million to Susno to investigate arwana.

Sjahril himself is on trial separately on charges of  bribery in the arwana case.

The trial of the allegedly powerful case brokers, Susno and Sjahril, followed on the heels of  the trial of Gayus Tambunan, a low ranking tax official, who Susno earlier named as an influential case broker.

Susno lost his job in the aftermath of the historic broadcast of taped conversations involving himself and a businessman that eventually led to the formation of the government’s Judicial Mafia Taskforce.

Yesterday’s hearing was over before the afternoon brawl outside the courthouse, which ended in the deaths of three people. The trial resumes next Wednesday.