The Attorney General's Office Examines Witnesses From The Ministry Of Trade And The Ministry Of Agriculture Regarding Sugar Importation Corruption

Kapuspenkum Attorney General's Office Ketut Sumedana/DOK AGO

JAKARTA - Investigators from the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General's Office have again examined witnesses in the investigation into cases of alleged corruption in sugar importation activities for the period 2015 to 2023 at the Ministry of Trade.

The Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana, said that three witnesses were examined by Jampidsus investigators, namely witnesses from the Ministry of Trade, witnesses from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Food Security Agency.

The three witnesses, namely HS as Head of the Evaluation and Reporting Section of the Secretariat of the Food Security Agency, AS as Director of Imports of the Ministry of Trade and REZT as Chair of the Ministry of Agriculture's Spice Plant Group.

"The three witnesses were examined in connection with the investigation of the alleged corruption case in sugar importation activities at the Ministry of Trade from 2015 to 2023," Sumedana said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, October 10.

As for witness HR, referring to Hasauddin Rumra's testimony, US witnesses referred to Arif Sulistiyo's statement, and REZT referred to Ronald Evan Zigler Tambunan's statement.

"The witness examination was carried out to strengthen the evidence and complete the filing in the case," said Ketut.

Since Tuesday (3/10) Jampidsus investigators from the Attorney General's Office have raised the status of case handling from investigation to investigation stage.

The examination of witnesses began on Monday (9/10), two witnesses were examined, namely an official from the Ministry of Trade, namely the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Ministry of Trade with the initials SH and the Coordinator for Supervision of Goods and Goods of the Ministry of Trade with the initials NMKD.

So that today, a total of five witnesses have been examined by investigators.

Investigators found two sufficient preliminary pieces of evidence on suspicion of abuse of authority in the sugar importation activity at the Ministry of Trade.

"The actions include, among others, allegedly in the context of fulfilling national sugar stocks and stability of national sugar prices," said the Director of Investigation at Jampidsus Kuntadi, Tuesday (3/10).

The Ministry of Trade is suspected of committing illegal acts by issuing the approval of imports of raw crystal sugar (GKM) in question to be processed into white crystal sugar (GKP) to parties suspected of being authorized.

In addition, he continued, the Ministry of Trade is also suspected of having granted import permits that exceed the maximum quota limit required by the government.

In this case, investigators have conducted searches at the Ministry of Trade office and the Office of PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) in Central Jakarta.

At the Ministry of Trade office, the Investigative Team conducted searches in the Ministerial Administration room, the Director of Imports' Room, and the workspace of the Chairperson of the Agricultural Product Import Team.

Meanwhile, at the PPI Office, the Investigative Team conducted a search of the Archives Room and the PT PPI Accounting and Finance Division.

From the searches at the two locations, investigators confiscated a number of electronic evidence related to criminal incidents and documents.