The luxury residence of tax official Gayus Tambunan in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. The National Police say they will summon him for questioning over Rp 25 billion in a case of suspected police corruption. Gayus has already been acquitted embezzlement, but police have reopened the case after Susno Duadji said the funds were for bribes. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)
The young mid-ranking tax official who was found to have about Rp 25 billion ($2.75 million) in accounts in his name and was at the center of a scandal over suspected police graft will finally be questioned by the National Police.
Insp. Gen. Dikdik Mulyana Arief, the deputy chief detective, said police would summon Gayus Tambunan, 30, for questioning.
“We will investigate where more than Rp 24.5 billion went to,” Dikdik said, referring to the money that had since disappeared from Gayus’ accounts.
The move followed a statement by National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri that something “strange” had occurred in earlier police investigations into the tax official.
Police also have been under heavy criticism for quickly tagging the whistle-blower in the case, former National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, as a suspect rather than probing allegations that police officials had taken bribes to halt the investigation into Gayus.
Susno, who claimed that three police officials he had identified by rank and initials had taken bribes, was on Wednesday declared a suspect in a defamation case filed by two officers who said he had implicated them.
An earlier police probe into Gayus’s accounts found that only Rp 395 million of the funds in his accounts were illegal. In October, police charged him with money-laundering, corruption and embezzlement. Prosecutors, however, only indicted him for embezzlement, for which the Tangerang District Court acquitted him on March 12.
The police then unfroze the account, which they said still contained Rp 24.5 billion. Susno claims the sum was a bribe for the police officials, but according to Gayus, the money was not his but belonged to a businessman from Batam named Andi Kosasih who wanted to buy land in Jakarta.
After having accepted Gayus’s explanation, the National Police later changed their position, saying they had evidence that he transferred more than Rp 1 billion to Kosasih’s account.
“It is strange, and we believe the money was a ‘success fee’ for Kosasih from Gayus because [Kosasih] had admitted that the money was his,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said. Police on Wed nesday named Kosasih a suspect for having given false testimony and put him on their wanted list.
Meanwhile, the head of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), Djoko Suyanto, on Thursday sent three recommendations to the president regarding alleged judicial mafia operating at the National Police.
“First, we think that case brokers should be eradicated, as it goes along with the government’s commitment,” Djoko said at the president’s office. Second, he said there were indications that Susno had violated the police code of ethics and honor.
The commission’s last recommendation, he said, was for an evaluation of the police after a string of scandals over the past year. “It should be comprehensive for the sake of the institution, nothing personal.”
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office dismissed an option to reopen the Gayus case, citing the legal principle of double jeopardy that prevents a person from being tried twice for the same crime. Besides, prosecutors are appealing the acquittal, so a separate legal measure could overlap the appeal, AGO spokesman Didiek Darmanto said.
But prosecutors would not inter vene in the police’s plan to relaunch an investigation into the Gayus case, he said.
Four prosecutors who handled the case — Cirus Sinaga, Fadil Regan, Eka Kurnia Sari, and Eka Savitri — were being examined by an internal inquiry team, he said.
Additional reporting by Heru Andriyanto.
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