Kejari Samarinda Tahan PNS RSUD Wahidin Mojokerto Tersangka Excise Tobacco

The defendant FA (center) was flanked by two Public Prosecutors of the Samarinda District Attorney (Antara/Ho Kejari Samarinda)

SAMARINDA - The Public Prosecutor for Special Crimes at the Samarinda District Attorney's Office (Kejari), East Kalimantan, detained the defendant with the initials FA, a civil servant (PNS) at Wahidin Mojokerto Hospital, East Java, for a tobacco excise case.

"The detention of the FA defendant is the result of the development of the case on behalf of the convict Moh Abuanis (MA) who has been sentenced to 2 years and 3 months in prison by the Samarinda District Court on April 5, 2023," said Samarinda District Attorney, Firmansyah Subhan, quoted by ANTARA, Friday, May 19.

The case began on November 21, 2022, where the FA as the capital owner, while the MA, the cigarette seller. Together they committed a criminal act by selling excisable goods from tobacco with the brand "GA Bold".

At that time, it was suspected that the tobacco was not attached to excise tape, but was attached with fake excise tape with seven cartons of goods at the Palaran Samarinda Main Stadium, East Kalimantan.

In this case, the defendant FA is suspected of committing an excise crime, resulting in state financial losses due to excise levies plus VAT on tobacco products plus a total cigarette tax of IDR 113.91 million.

"The FA defendant was detained at the prosecution level for 20 days at the Samarinda Class II State Detention Center (Rutan), starting from 17 May 2023 to 5 June 2023," said Firmansyah accompanied by Head of Intelligence Erfandy Rusdy Quiliem.

The detention was carried out by the prosecutor to speed up the process of prosecuting the case and based on the provisions of Article 21 Paragraph (1) and Paragraph (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code because it was feared that the defendant would run away, damage, and destroy evidence or repeat the crime.

Previously, Civil Servant Investigators (PPNS) of Customs and Excise Type Customs B Samarinda handed over Phase II Case on behalf of the suspect FA along with evidence to the Samarinda Kejari, on Wednesday (17/5) afternoon, so that now his status has risen from the suspect to the defendant.

"The transfer of the suspect and the evidence was carried out after the public prosecutor declared the case complete or P-21 on Thursday, April 13, 2023, so that his status from the suspect became a defendant," he said.

Furthermore, the public prosecutor (JPU) will prepare the prosecution administration and immediately transfer the case to the Corruption Court of the Samarinda District Court for questioning and trial at the trial stage.