Yasonna's Story Regarding The Repatriation Of Fugitive BNI Hackers Of IDR 1.7 Trillion

Fugitive Maria Pauline Lumowa (Photo: Public Relations Kemenkumham)

JAKARTA - Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly said that the extradition of the fugitive in the BNI burglary case worth IDR 1.7 trillion, Maria Pauline Lumowa is not easy. Maria's return to Indonesia had to go through a complicated procedure.

Yasonna said the first thing his party had done was to send an extradition request letter to the Serbian government. The letter was sent after his party received news that Maria was caught at Nikola Tesla International Airport.

"We continue to respond to notifications from the Government of Serbia, Interpol Serbia, Director General of AHU last year immediately sent a letter requesting extradition on July 31, 2019," said Yasonna, Thursday, July 9.

However, at that time, extradition could not be carried out immediately. Then, the Directorate General of General Legal Administration (Ditjen AHU) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights again wrote about a request to accelerate the extradition process on September 3.

Then, the International Relations Division conducted diplomacy with a certain approach pattern with the Serbian Government. Until finally, began to find bright spots in the extradition process.

Receiving the news, Yasonna immediately communicated with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) regarding the steps to be taken. Because, the detention period of Maria Pauline Lumowa will soon end.

"Because if we pass the 16th, his detention period will end," said Yasonna.

For your information, Maria Pauline Lumowa is the person most wanted by the Indonesian government. The reason was that the woman was a suspect in the cash burglary case at the Kebayoran Baru branch of BNI using a fictitious Letter of Credit (L / C) mode.

Meanwhile, from October 2002 to July 2003, BNI suffered losses amounting to 136 million US dollars and 56 million euros or the equivalent of Rp 1.7 trillion based on the current exchange rate. This amount of money is a loan from PT Gramarindo Group owned by Maria Pauline Lumowa and Adrian Waworuntu.

BNI began to feel suspicion. Because, the borrowing process which should be quite difficult because of the large nominal it runs very easily. It is suspected that PT Gramarindo Group was assisted by 'unscrupulous' employees of Bank BNI because the loan application continued to agree with guarantees of L / C from Dubai Bank Kenya Ltd., Rosbank Switzerland, Middle East Bank Kenya Ltd., and The Wall Street Banking Corp.

Moreover, some of the banks that became the guarantor were not correspondence banks of Bank BNI. This suspicion grew stronger in June 2003. BNI investigated the financial transactions of PT Gramarindo Group. As a result, the company never made exports or was not in accordance with what was reported during the loan process.

Until finally, BNI reported the alleged fictitious L / C to the National Police Headquarters. However, Maria Pauline Lumowa left Indonesia by going to Singapore in September 2003 or a month before being named a suspect

From the results of the investigation, it was found that the woman had often been in the Netherlands in 2009 and often went back and forth to Singapore. In fact, it is known that Maria has been a Dutch citizen since 1979. Thus, the Indonesian government tried to apply for extradition to the Dutch government twice, to be precise in 2010 and 2014.

However, the Dutch Government rejected the request. Instead, it provides an option for Maria Pauline Lumowa to be tried in the Netherlands. Until finally, the woman was arrested on July 16, 2019, according to an Interpol red notice published in 2004.