Detention Period Of Four CPO Export Suspects Extended

Director General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade Indasari Wisnu Wardhana (left) wearing prison clothes/ Antara

JAKARTA - The Attorney General's Office has extended the detention period of 40 days for four suspects in the alleged corruption case in granting crude palm oil (CPO) export facilities for the period January 2021 to March 2022.

"The suspect has been detained for 40 days, starting from May 9 to June 17, 2022," said Head of the Attorney General's Office for Legal Information (Kapuspenkum) Ketut Sumedana in his statement to reporters in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Wednesday, May 11.

The four suspects are the Director General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana, Commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia Master Parulian Tumanggor, Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs of PT Pelita Agung Agrindustri/Permata Hijau Group Stanley MA, and General Manager of the General Affairs Department of PT Musim Mas Picare. Tagore Sitanggang.

The four suspects have been detained since last Tuesday, April 19. Suspects Stanley and Picare are being held at the Salemba Rutan at the South Jakarta District Attorney's Office, while the suspects are Master and Indrasari at the Salemba Rutan at the Attorney General's Office.

Ketut explained that the extension of the detention of the four suspects was carried out for the purpose of examination at the level of the unfinished investigation.

"So it is deemed necessary to extend the detention of the suspect," he added.

The investigation into this case continues. On Tuesday, May 10, investigators examined two witnesses from the private sector, namely LCW and NS. LCW is the policy/analytical advisor to Independent Research & Advisory Indonesia, while NS is the Chair of the Regional Leadership Board of the Traders Association.

"Witness examination is carried out to strengthen evidence and complete the filing in the alleged corruption case," he said.

The alleged corruption case in CPO exports stems from the scarcity and increase in cooking oil prices in various regions.

Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin said the four suspects had committed unlawful acts, in the form of cooperating in the issuance of Export Approval (PE) permits.

With this unlawful cooperation, finally a PR was issued that did not meet the requirements, namely distributing CPO not in accordance with the domestic sales price and not distributing CPO domestically as the obligation of 20 percent of total exports.

As a result of the actions of the suspects, the country's economy suffered losses, namely by rising prices and scarcity of cooking oil. This also led to a decline in household consumption and small industries.

The four suspects are subject to Article 2 or Article 3 of the Corruption Crime Act (Tipikor), then Article 54 paragraph (1) letter a and paragraph (2) letter abe and f of Law Number 7 of 2014 concerning Trade, and/or Decision Minister of Trade number 129 juncto number 170 of 2022 concerning Determination of Amounts for Distribution of Domestic Needs and Domestic Sales Prices.

Then also the provisions of Chapter 2 letter a number 1 letter b in conjunction with chapter 2 letter c number 4 letter c Regulation of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade Number 02 of 2022 concerning Technical Instructions for Implementing Policies and Regulations on CPO Exports.