Sugar Corruption Case, AGO Examines Ministry Of Trade Officials In The Era Tom Lembong And PT PPI Staff

Kapuspenkum Attorney General's Office Harli Siregar/DOK IST

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) continues to carry out a series of witness examinations related to allegations of corruption in sugar imports at the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) for the 2015-2016 period. Recently, two people were questioned, one of whom was an official from the Ministry of Trade.

"Examining two witnesses related to the alleged corruption case in sugar importation activities at the Ministry of Trade," said Head of the AGO, Harli Siregar, to reporters, Tuesday, January 7.

The Ministry of Trade official in question is MY as the Head of Sub-Directorate 2 for the Importation of Forestry Agriculture Products and Fisheries for the 2014-2016 period. Meanwhile, for one other witness, FM is the staff of PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI).

However, it was not clearly conveyed about the examination material of the two witnesses. It is only mentioned that the process of taking information which took place on Tuesday, January 7, is to explore the case that has named Tom Lembong as a suspect.

"The two witnesses were examined in connection with the investigation of the alleged corruption case in sugar importation activities at the Ministry of Trade in 2015-2016 on behalf of the TTL suspect and others," said Harli.

In this case, Tom Lembong, who is the Minister of Trade for the 2015-2016 period, was named a suspect because he gave a sugar import permit of 105,000 tons to private companies.

The granting of the permit violates the Decree of the Minister of Trade Number 527 of 2004. This is because only state-owned companies or SOEs are allowed to import sugar.

Tom Lembong was charged with Article 2 Paragraph 1 or Article 3 Juncto Article 18 of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31 of 1999 concerning Corruption Crimes Juncto Article 55 Paragraph 1 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code.