VIVAnews-- Corruption case fugitive, Adrian Kiki Ariawan, was finally arrested after 6 years on the run. Adrian has been in Indonesia’s wanted list for his role in the corruption case involving the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) funds.
According to Deputy Attorney General, Muchtar Arifin, he was arrested on Friday, 28 November 2008, in Perth, West Australia. “He is being held in Perth,” he said during the commemoration of World Anti-corruption Day in the National Monument (Monas) Park, Jakarta, Tuesday, Dec. 9.
Muchtar said that Adrian has been under the surveillance of Australian authorities for quite some time. The Indonesian attorney's office had asked the Australian Police to keep an eye on him since May 2008.
In the meantime, there will be an extradition hearing in Australia. “That’s the standard procedure,” said Muchtar.
Unfortunately the extradition hearing process will delay Adrian’s return to Indonesia. Adrian, Muchtar said, has the right to fight the extradition through court system. “If all the process is followed, it could take up to 2.5 years,” said Muchtar.
For that reason, Muchtar said, he will lead a team to leave for Australia tonight, in order to expedite Adrian’s return. He said that he is going there to do a formal request for extradition and “to take coordinative steps with the local police and attorney office.”
However, Muchtar said, the point is not only to bring Adrian Kiki back to hold him accountable for what he did, but also to have him return the money taken from the state. “We will trace where the money have gone. That will be the target of our case,” he said.
On 13 November 2002, Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Adrian Kiki, in absentia, to life imprisonment after being proven guilty of corruption and causing loss to the state in the amount of Rp 1.9 trillion (approx. US$163.2 billion).
Adrian Kiki is former President Director of Bank Surya. From 1989 to 1998 Adrian Kiki and his co-conspirators had engaged in acts of corruption at the office of PT Bank Surya.
The modus was by disbursing credit to 166 companies/debtors from the group that the defendant formed. In fact, the debtors did not run any operations.
The case was then put to trial. However, during a court session on 8 July 2002, Adrian and friends chose not to attend. Board of Judges of Central Jakarta District Court decided to continue the court session in absentia.
On 13 November 2002, Adrian Kiki again did not attend the court session. The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced him to life imprisonment, in absentia. Lately, it was discovered that Adrian Kiki had been in Australia since 2003. The attorney's office then requested the Australian police to watch Kiki.
Adrian is not the only fugitive of the case to flee to Australia. Owner of Bank Harapan Santosa, Hendra Rahardja, was also rumored to have fled there. However, he has been reported to have passed away. Thus, the attorney's office is currently chasing his assets. The Indonesian government is attempting to finalize a government-to-government agreement with the Australian government to return Hendra’s assets of up to US$3 million suspected of being held there.
The Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support case started when an audit report from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), revealed a flow of funds in the amount of Rp 31.5 billion (approx. US$2.6 million), to several members of the Finance and Banking Commission of the House of Representatives. The fund was used for dissemination purposes of the Indonesian Bank Law Revision discussion. The BPK suspects that the funds were a form of bribery towards the House of Representatives, in order to maintain certain interests of the central bank, and in response to the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance settlement.
The latest controversial breakthrough in the case was the arrest of Indonesian President’s in-law, Aulia Pohan, along with three other former deputy governors of Bank Indonesia. He was arrested because he was the coordinator of the People's Social Committee; the committee that was formed for the improvement of Bank Indonesia's image and legal aid for some of its former officials. However only Rp 68.5 billion of a total of Rp 100 billion (approx. US$8.6 million) were used for that purpose, while the rest Rp 31.5 billion were allegedly used for bribery.
Three people have been sentenced for this case. The first was Burhanuddin Abdullah, former BI Governor, who was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment. Next were Oey Hoey Tiong, BI’s former Legal Director, and the Surabaya BI bureau Chief, Rusli Simanjuntak. They were sentenced to four years of imprisonment on 12 November 2008.
However, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said that it has not yet finished with the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) case. “I will continue to pursue [the case] because BLBI is still burdening the state budget,” said Head of KPK, Antasari Azhar, amid the National Corruption Eradication Conference, Jakarta, Tuesday, Dec. 9.
The amount of money involved just in the Department of Finance and government banks, amounts to Rp 400 trillion (approx. US$34.36 billion). Antasari said KPK will also investigate the BLBI funds that are linked to private banks.
Initially, the BLBI case has been handled by the Attorney General’s Office. However, due to public pressure, KPK helped to handle the case to avoid polemics from circulating; in addition, an attorney handling the BLBI case, Urip Tri Gunawan, was suspected of and then convicted of blackmailing Atalyta Suryani, the right hand person of a BLBI obligor, Syamsul Nursalim.
