The AGO Has Detained 4 Suspects In The Corruption Procurement Of The Ministry Of Defense Satellite

Screenshots of Jampidmil connection investigators from the Attorney General's Office have shown Thomas Van Der Heyden, a foreign national who has been named a suspect/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Investigators of connectivity at the Deputy Attorney General for Military Crimes at the Attorney General's Office have detained four suspects in a case of alleged corruption in the project of procuring an orbital slot of 123 degrees east longitude for the 2012-2021 period at the Ministry of Defense. Head of the Attorney General's Office for Legal Information, Ketut Sumedana, said the detention was carried out after the four suspects underwent examination. "The four suspects were detained at the Salemba State Detention Center at the Attorney General's Office," Ketut said as quoted by Antara, Friday, January 13 evening. The four suspects are Arifin Wiguna as Commissioner of PT Dini Nusa Kesuma (DNK), Surya Cipta Witoelar as President Director of PT DNK, and Rear Admiral (Ret.) Agus Purwoto as former Director General of Defense Forces of the Ministry of Defense for the period December 2013 to August 2016. Then one suspect is a foreign national, Thomas Van Der Heyden, an expert at PT DNK. The detention of the four suspects was carried out on Thursday (12/1). "Detention measures are carried out by connectivity investigators in the context of transferring cases to the prosecution stage," said Ketut. This is in accordance with Article 21 paragraph (1) and paragraph (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code concerning objective and subjective requirements for the detention of the suspects. In this case, the suspects jointly procured the orbital slot satellite 123 degrees east of the Artemis satellite rental contract from Avanti on the pretext that it was in an emergency to save the spectrum allocation in the orbital slot 123 degrees (BT). However, in reality, the Artemis satellite that has been chartered does not work because the specifications of the Artemis satellite are not the same as the previous satellite, namely Garuda-1 which cannot be used and is useless. "This action resulted in state losses, carried out unlawfully and violating statutory regulations," said Ketut. The state losses estimated to arise in this case amounted to Rp500,579 billion, which came from payments for satellite rentals and arbitration decisions of Rp480,124 billion and payment for consultant services of Rp20,255 billion. The suspects were charged with Article 2 paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 18 subsidiary Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of the Corruption Eradication Law in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) of the 1st Criminal Code.