Japanese Citizens Involved In Corruption Of COVID-19 Social Assistance Funds Immediately Returned Through Jakarta

Illustration of patrol at the airport. (Between)

JAKARTA - A Japanese citizen with the initials MD who was involved in a suspected corruption case of the COVID-19 social assistance fund (bansos) in his home country was detected in Bandar Lampung, Sumatra.

Director of Immigration Supervision and Enforcement of the Directorate General of Immigration of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram said the MD who had been arrested would soon be repatriated to Japan.

"The Directorate General of Immigration will coordinate with the Japanese Embassy for the repatriation of MD," said Nyoman Gede in Jakarta, Wednesday, June 8.

He said the arrest of MD began with a report by the Japanese Embassy on June 7, 2022 to the Directorate General of Immigration of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

At that time, the Immigration Attaché, Police Attaché, and the Japanese Defense Attaché said that they were looking for MD for the alleged corruption case of COVID-19 funds.

The Japanese Embassy also stated that MD's passport had been canceled and requested the assistance of the Indonesian Directorate General of Immigration to arrest him. From the information collected, it is known that MD was in Bandar Lampung at that time.

The Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights immediately ordered his staff to find and arrest MD. On Tuesday 7 June 2022 at 22.30 WIB, Lampung Immigration Division officers together with the local police managed to secure MD and take him to Jakarta for further processing.

I Nyoman Gede said the Japanese citizen is known to have been in Indonesia for about 1.5 years and is a holder of a limited stay permit card.

In line with that, the Head of the Immigration Division of Lampung, Is Edy Eko Putranto, said that based on data in the field and information from local residents, MD had only lived for about 1 week in the Kalirejo area of Lampung.

During his stay in Kalirejo, he also offered to local people to invest in fisheries.

"We received reports that there were foreigners whose passports had been revoked by the embassy and immediately secured the MD," he concluded.