Jakarta Globe, Heru Andriyanto, July 01, 2010
Yusril Ihza Mahendra, left, shows his frustration as his questioning at Attorney General’s Office came to a dramatic end on Thursday when the former justice minister walked out on prosecutors. (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)
The high-profile questioning of graft suspect Yusril Ihza Mahendra at the Attorney General’s Office came to a dramatic end on Thursday when the former justice minister walked out on prosecutors and then lashed out at security guards who attempted to prevent him from leaving.
The other suspect due for questioning on Thursday over a Rp 410 billion ($45 million) graft case involving a business registration Web site at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, tycoon Hartono Tanoesoedibjo, did not appear at all.
Hartono is believed to be in the Taiwan capital, Taipei.
Yusril asked that the questioning be postponed until today, before walking out of the meeting.
But security guards blocked his car from leaving the building and then locked an outer gate when he attempted to leave on foot.
“What is it all about? I’m a guest here and you can’t treat me like this,” an angry Yusril shouted at the guards.
The former justice minister was then forced to call the AGO’s deputy for special crimes, Muhammad Amari, for permission to leave.
“The questioning had not started but he walked away just like that, so that’s why we prevented him from leaving,” Amari told reporters after the incident.
“Yusril explained that he was not ready for the interrogation and asked for a second summons. I understood that he didn’t intend to flee.”
Asked about Hartono, Amari said if the tycoon continued to ignore summonses to appear for questioning, he would be declared a fugitive. “If he doesn’t return [to Indonesia], we will hunt him down,” he said.
However, Hotman Paris Hutapea, a lawyer for Hartono, did appear on Thursday and asked the AGO for a one-week stay for his client, who he said was in Singapore for medical treatment.
But his claim was inconsistent with information provided by the immigration office, which stated that Hartono had been in Taipei for more than a week.
“Our records show that Hartono Tanoesoedibjo left for Taipei at 5:04 a.m. on June 24, while the travel ban request [for him] arrived a day later,” said Maroloan Jonas Barimbing, a spokesman for the immigration office, which is under the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.
He said the office could not freeze Hartono’s passport while he was still in a foreign country.
Yusril is accused of illegally appointing PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika as the sole provider of a ministry Web site that allowed corporate clients to register with the government online.
Investigators allege that the company received 90 percent of the Web site’s revenue while the ministry pocketed the remaining 10 percent.
Hartono, who set up Sarana, has been named a suspect for allegedly embezzling revenue that should have been deposited in state coffers as non-tax revenue.
According to the AGO, which launched the probe in October 2008, the graft case cost the country at least Rp 410 billion.
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