Ministry Of Defense Satellite Case, Attorney General Burhanuddin: We Are Investigating Civilian Suspects, Not Military

Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin gave a statement to the media crew at the Kartika Adhyaksa Building, Attorney General's Office, Jakarta, Wednesday (19/1/2022). (ANTARA/Laily Rahmawaty)

JAKARTA - Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin stated that in the case of alleged corruption in the procurement of the 123 degree East Longitude (BT) Satellite Slot Orbit project by the Ministry of Defense (Kemenhan) in 2015-2021, his party only conducted investigations against civilian suspects, not military.

"For your friends to know, that we conduct investigations only against civilian suspects, not the military," said Burhanuddin at a press conference at the Kartika Adhyaksa Building, Jakarta, as reported by Antara, Wednesday, January 19.

Burhanuddin explained, for the stage whether the military is involved in the case, the prosecutor requires stages of coordination with the Military Police as the authority holder in processing military members. But if there is, then the case is settled in a connected manner.

“Unless it is determined otherwise, it will be connectivity. But at this time what we are still investigating is the civil, the private sector," said Burhanuddin.

Furthermore, Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (JAMPidsus) Febrie Adriansyah said that the handling of the Kemhan Satellite case had gone through the stages of the legal process from investigation to investigation. Investigators found sufficient preliminary evidence that there was an unlawful act in the procurement process for the 123 degree East Longitude Slot Orbit Satellite project.

For the past two days, JAMPidsus investigators have conducted investigations to search and confiscate witnesses from private parties who are implementing partners in the project.

A total of five witnesses were examined, all from the company PT Dini Nusa Kusuma (DNK), including searches carried out at two PT DNK offices, along with one apartment.

"So the investigators explored the role from the beginning whether this company (DNK) was indeed considered capable enough when it was handed over to this job," said Febrie.

Another thing, said Febrie, is that investigators want to see the project implementation process by the partner implementing the satellite project. This examination is, of course, on the basis that the investigator believes to be the most responsible party.

"Of course we check from the implementation partner because we see this is the most responsible party and this is the private sector," said Febrie.

As for the military, the former Head of the DKI Jakarta High Prosecutor's Office (Kajati) said that his party had handed the matter over to the TNI Puspom through the Junior Attorney General for Military Crimes (JAMPidmil).

"As stated from the start, that we will continue to coordinate in the progress of the investigation, including later exposure or case titles that we do after the results of the investigation we see are sufficient to determine the suspect," said Febrie. The Ministry of Defense has raised BT to the investigation stage. On Friday, January 14, five witnesses have been examined. Three witnesses were questioned on Monday, January 17 and two other witnesses were examined on Tuesday, January 18.

The five witnesses came from the private sector, namely PT Dini Nusa Kusuma. The first three witnesses were examined by PY as Senior Account Manager of PT Dini Nusa Kusuma (DNK), witness RACS as Promotion Manager of PT Dini Nusa Kusuma (DNK), and AK as General Manager of PT Dini Nusa Kusuma (DNK).

Then two other witnesses were examined today, SW as the main director and AW as the President Director of PT Dini Nusa Kusuma.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD in a press conference Thursday, January 13, said that the Ministry of Communication and Information has issued a decision on the right to use Indonesian satellite filling in orbits of 123 degrees for the filing of the Garuda-2 and Nusantara A1-A satellites. to PT DNK.

On December 10, 2018, Kominfo issued a decision regarding the Right to Use Indonesian Satellite Filing at orbit 123 degrees east longitude for the filling of the Garuda-2 and Nusantara A1-A satellites to PT DNK. However, PT DNK was not able to resolve the problem of the Ministry of Defense's residue in the procurement of the Defense Communications Satellite (Satkomhan).