Soppeng Police Appoint Regional House of Representatives Members As Suspects Of Forest Logging

MAKASSAR- Soppeng District Police, South Sulawesi, have named three suspects in cases of logging and destruction of protected forests in Pumpungan Village. One of the suspects is a member of the Regional House of Representatives.

"Three people have been named as suspects (initials A, M, and N). Yes, one of them is a member of the council", said Soppeng Police Head of Criminal Investigation Unit, Iptu Noviarif Kurniawan, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, August 3.

It is known that one of the Soppeng Regional House of Representatives members has the initials A from the Gerindra Party. Meanwhile, M and N are A's messengers to carry out the execution of tree cutting in the protected forest.

"The modus operandi is that the perpetrators (M and N) were only ordered to do so. The one who ordered A. Indeed, the location was A, he bought it from people. Some of the locations were not included in the protected forest area, then they were ordered to cut down trees to plant durian trees in the protected forest area, want to be used as an agro-tourism location", explained Arif.

Arif revealed that this member of the Regional House of Representatives owns land that is not included in the protected forest conservation area but is logging into the protected forest area.

He said the area of the protected forest is around 13 hectares and four hectares of trees in the protected forest have been cut down.

For the determination of the suspect's status, he said, last week after being summoned to undergo an examination with several other witnesses. All suspects have been examined and this month entered the process of phase one investigation.

While the article imposed on the suspects, Article 82 paragraph 1 Junto Article 12 of the Job Creation Act, this article comes from Law 18 of 2013 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction.

"It's an old law, but because it was included in the Job Creation Act yesterday, it was updated, only the article has changed slightly, but the criminal charge is 5 years and a fine of IDR 2.5 billion", he said.

According to him, during the examination process, the suspects were cooperative, so they were not detained. Moreover, one of the suspects, A, is sick so that he is given concessions for health care so that his treatment is not disrupted.

"The most important thing is that as long as the investigation is not hindered and they are cooperative, we give them the obligation to report as well as the others. In the meantime we will complete the file (P21), later God willing, if not this week, next week we will send the file to the prosecutor's office for investigation", added the Head of Criminal Investigation Unit.