King Juli Clarifies Playing Domino With Aziz Wellang

JAKARTA - The Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni clarified that he was caught playing domino with Aziz Wellang, the owner of a concession area with 11,580 hectares in Central Kalimantan who had a case of illegal logging law.

Raja Juli admitted that at that time he received an invitation from the Minister of Protection for Indonesian Migrant Workers (P2MI) Abdul Kadir Karding to come to the South Sulawesi Family Harmony Post (KKSS). Currently, Karding serves as secretary general.

"I discussed with Minister Karding alone in the back room for more than 2 hours. There was no theme of our discussion regarding the illegal logging case at all. Approaching 24.00 I said goodbye to him," said Raja Juli in his statement, Sunday, September 7.

When he was about to go home, Raja Juli passed through the living room with quite a lot of people. Some of them were playing dominoes. King Juli and Karding were invited to participate in the game.

"After 2 rounds, I said goodbye to Minister Karding and many people in the living room," said Raja Juli.

Raja Juli claimed that while playing dominoes, he claimed he did not know the other two players. There was also no talk about any cases at the time.

"After this news circulated, I just found out that one of the people who took part in the game was Azis Wellang, who was reported as a wild logging player," he said.

The PSI secretary general also claimed that he did not open up a single space for anyone who violates the law in forest areas. He will enforce the law firmly against illegal logging indiscriminately.

"That's how I can actually convey, in fact, telling what really happened in the middle of the night a few days ago," he added.