Sita W. Dewi, Jakarta – Veteran lawmaker of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Izedrik Emir Moeis was named a suspect in a graft case surrounding the construction of a power plant in 2004.
Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana broke the news about Emir's legal status when announcing that the Immigration Office had slapped a travel ban on the House member.
"The ministry through the directorate general for immigration has received a letter from the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] requesting a travel ban on Emir. The letter is dated July 23 and the status of the individual is as a suspect in the graft case related to the construction of the power plant," Denny said in a message sent to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The KPK, however, said no formal announcement had been made with regard to Emir's status in the case.
"The status [of Emir in the case] will be announced when the time is right for the KPK commissioners, and now is not the time," KPK spokesman Johan Budi said, adding that the KPK leaders would make an official statement in the next few days.
On Tuesday, the KPK announced that it had sent a request to the immigration office to apply for the travel ban against Emir, who is currently the House's finance commission chairman. Johan said that Denny should have communicated with the KPK before making any statement concerning its investigations.
Emir has been implicated in a number of graft cases but this is the first time he has been named as a suspect. He was accused of having instructed Dudhie Makmun Murod, former lawmaker from the PDI-P to distribute traveler's checks worth Rp 9.8 billion (US$1.02 million) to faction members in the high-profile Bank Indonesia vote-buying scandal that resulted in the election of Miranda S. Goeltom as senior deputy governor of the bank.
He was also implicated in a graft case in the procurement of medical equipment to handle the bird flu pandemic at the office of the Coordinating People's Welfare Minister in 2006. Emir, who was then chairman of the House budgetary committee, was said to have received Rp 200 million in the form of traveler's checks from the ministry's former secretary, Sutedjo Yuwono. Sutedjo was sentenced to three years in prison for abusing his authority. Emir remained a free man after returning the traveler's checks in November 2010.
Emir has also been implicated in a solar power plant project for the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry in which Rp 2.7 billion of the Rp 8.9 billion project cost was allegedly embezzled.
He was summoned in July 2011 by the KPK as a witness in a graft case surrounding the Outsourcing Roll-Out-Customer Information System (CIS-RISI) project at the state-electricity company PT PLN.
Emir said he was not aware that the KPK had named him a suspect in the case. "I learned about the allegation about my involvement in the case from television and online news."
Emir said that he knew about the power plant project from two people implicated in the case, director of PT Artha Nusantara Utama, Zuliansyah Putra, and general manager of PT Indonesian Site Marine, Reza Roestam.
"I know Reza as my junior at the Bandung Institute of Technology [ITB] and I know that Zuliansyah is a researcher with the company, not its owner," he said. Emir also said that he had spoken with Megawati Soekarnoputri about his case. (cor)