Southeast Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office Detains One Mining Corruption Suspect

The Southeast Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office (Kejati Sultra) has detained a suspect on suspicion of a criminal act of mining corruption operating in the North Konawe Regency (Konut) area.

Assistant for Intelligence (Asintel) of the Southeast Sulawesi Attorney General's Office Ade Hermawan in Kendari, Monday night said that investigators had named one suspect with the initials GAS on suspicion of mining corruption in the North Konawe Regency area, which was then detained at the Kendari Class IIA Detention Center.

"Today, investigators from the Southeast Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office have detained a suspect with the initials GAS. He (the suspect) as the executor of PT LAM in the alleged mining corruption case," he said.

Detention of the suspect will be carried out for 20 days at the Kendari Class IIA Rutan, starting from June 19 to July 8, 2023.

Ade explained that in this case the GAS suspect acted as the field implementer of PT LAM. The suspect is suspected of being involved in selling nickel ore without a permit, even allegedly being sold to a number of smelters using flying documents.

"The smelter was sold, using flying documents, one of which has been named a suspect, namely the Director of PT KKP," he said.

In this alleged mining corruption case, his party will conduct an examination of 38 companies suspected of being involved. However, until now there are only eight companies that have been investigated.

He said that it was possible that there would still be other new suspects in the alleged mining corruption case.

"It is possible that when investigators find sufficient evidence, they will also be named as suspects," he said.

The suspect charged with Article 2 paragraph (1), Article 3 of Law 31 of 1999 as amended by Law 20 of 2001 concerning Corruption in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) 1st of the Criminal Code with a minimum penalty of four years for Article 2, and one year for Article 3 and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Meanwhile, for the amount of state losses in this case, Ade said that his party was still calculating with the help of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP).

In this case, investigators from the Southeast Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office have also asked for information from relevant government officials as witnesses.

"The number of witnesses examined in the alleged mining corruption crime has reached 47 people," he added.

In this alleged mining corruption case, the Southeast Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office previously named three suspects on Monday (5/6). However, only one person was detained, the initials GAS, after undergoing his first examination today.

"The other two suspects are scheduled for questioning as suspects this week," concluded Ade.

Di tempat yang sama, kuasa hukum tersangka, Andi Simangonsong mengatakan bahwa kliennya tidak melakukan tindak pidana lagi korupsi. Ia mengaku akan melakukan upaya-upaya hukum untuk membela kliennya.

"We from the attorney see that what was done by Glen's brother (the suspect) was not a criminal act, let alone a criminal act of corruption. In our opinion, there is a difference in perception between us legal counsel and the prosecutor's office as investigators in assessing this problem," he said.