Jakarta – Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) has said the Papua Police have been unprofessional in their handling of the case concerning Adj. First Insp. Labora Sitorus, who was found in possession of bank accounts containing Rp 1.5 trillion (US$132 million). The IPW said it was concerned that, once the case came to court, judges would have no choice but to acquit the suspect.

"We are concerned about the Papua Police's decision to hand over Sitorus' case dossier to the prosecutor's office on Sept. 19, despite the fact that the case file was weak. It highlighted that the police had not worked professionally," IPW chairman Neta S. Pane said on Saturday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Neta said that the case dossier did not mention, for example, that several other parties were involved in the alleged money laundering with which Sitorus has been charged. This was omitted despite evidence that showed the Sorong-based police officer had paid off 33 National Police officers.

Neta said the only conclusion to be drawn from this was that the National Police was trying hard to protect its personnel who accepted money from Sitorus. "The prosecutor's office must now fill in the gaps and complete Sitorus' case file by investigating how the money was channeled to the 33 police officers."

Neta added that the Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) should help in determining the transactions between Sitorus and the 33 police officials. Money had, for example, been transferred 12 times to a Bank Mandiri account, which was allegedly owned by an officer based at the National Police headquarters.

Further payments were also transferred to a senior officer with the Papua Police on four occasions in 2012. The sums comprised Rp 629.75 million in January; Rp 225 million in June; Rp 300 million in August, and Rp 150 million in September. A sum amounting to Rp 200 million was again transferred to the same officer in February this year.

Meanwhile, an officer serving with the Sorong Police accepted eight fund transfers in 2012 totaling Rp 1.25 billion. (ebf)