Dian Kuswandini and Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) seized Rp 20 billion (US$1.7 million) in cash from the Justice and Human Rights Ministry office in relation to an alleged corruption case at the ministry.
AGO spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan said in Jakarta on Monday the money was confiscated in two raids carried out Monday and last Thursday, and added to hundreds of documents recently seized in relation to the alleged crime.
"Prosecutors confiscated Rp 2.4 billion cash from the office of the director general of public legal administration (Syamsuddin Manan Sinaga) on Monday and around Rp 18 billion last Thursday," he said.
"The money will be deposited into one of the AGO's bank accounts, pending legal processes to transfer it to state coffers."
Prosecutors suspect the cash was generated through an online administration system currently at the center of a graft scandal, which is estimated to have cost the state Rp 400 billion in losses.
"The Rp 2.4 billion seized was the equivalent of the annual budget for the directorate general's activities," a financial staffer at the ministry's directorate general, Erwantoro, said.
The raid occurred at 2 p.m. and was conducted by three AGO officials. The head of the AGO investigating team, Faried Hariyanto, said prosecutors had amassed 700 documents related to the case.
The case centers around the distribution of funds allegedly embezzled from a legal administration website, www.sisminbakum.com, run by the directorate general.
Since 2001, the website allowed legal entities to register for permits and nominate notaries, and charged fees ranging from Rp 250,000 to Rp 1 million.
Attracting around 200 applicants per day, the system was able to generate up to Rp 9 billion per month, of which 90 percent went to the system provider PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika (SRD) and the remaining 10 percent was split between cooperatives and senior officials at the directorate general.
Prosecutors have alleged a director general received on average Rp 10 million per month while a secretary took around Rp 5 million. The AGO says money generated from the system should had gone to state coffers as non-tax revenue because the system offered public services.
The AGO has already named three suspects in the case: Former director general Romli Atmasasmita and his successors Syamsuddin and Zulkarnain Yunus.
Romli, a legal expert from Bandung-based Padjadjaran University, filed a pretrial motion Monday against the AGO at the South Jakarta District Court.
His lawyer Firman Wijaya said his client was dissatisfied over his arrest by the AGO over two weeks ago and was launching subsequent action.
"The AGO discriminated against Romli by naming him as a suspect when there was no legal basis or sufficient evidence," he said.
The AGO denied the accusation, saying it had carried out a series of detailed investigations beforehand.
"We have been investigating this case since August. We already questioned 20 witnesses and studied hundreds of documents before naming any suspects," said the assistant attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendi.