AGO Detains Tom Lembong At Salemba Rutan

DOC VOI

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) will detain Thomas Trikasih Lembong (TTL) or Tom Lembong at the Salemba Rutan, South Jakarta District Attorney's Branch for the next 20 days for investigation purposes.

Tom Lembong was escorted out of the examination room at around 21.00 WIB.

He appeared to be wearing a pink vest specifically for detention. When asked by reporters, Tom Lembong only smiled and got into the prisoner's car.

At around 21.15 WIB, the prisoner's car carrying Tom Lembong began to leave the Attorney General's building.

Director of Investigation at the Attorney General's Office, Abdul Qohar, said that Tom Lembong's detention was because he had been named a suspect in a case of alleged corruption in sugar importation activities for the 2015-2023 period at the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag).

"The detention of the suspect is based on the Detention Order Number 50 dated October 29, 2024," he said, Tuesday, October 29.

He explained that Tom Lembong's involvement in the case was while serving as Minister of Trade for the 2015'2016 Period.

The case began when in 2015, in a coordination meeting between ministries, it was concluded that Indonesia had a sugar surplus, so there was no need to import sugar.

However, in the same year, Tom Lembong as the Minister of Trade at that time gave PT AP a license to import raw crystal sugar.

"Brother TTL gave permission to import 105,000 tons of raw crystal sugar to PT. AP, which later processed raw crystal sugar into white crystal sugar," he said.

Whereas according to regulations, it is stated that those who are allowed to import white crystal sugar are State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN).

"But based on the import approval issued by the suspect TTL, the import of sugar was carried out by PT AP and the import of raw crystal sugar did not go through a coordination meeting or coordination meeting with related agencies and without any recommendations from the Ministry of Industry to find out the real needs of sugar in the country," he said.

In that case, investigators also named one other suspect, namely the Director of Business Development of PT PPI with the initials CS.

For the actions of the suspects Tom Lembong and CS, the state was harmed by around Rp. 400 billion.

Both are suspected of violating Article 2 Paragraph 1 or Article 3 Juncto Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law Number 20 of 2021 jo. Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning criminal acts of corruption jo. Article 55 Paragraph 1 1 of the Criminal Code.