Graft convict Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra has admitted to paying Rp 10 billion (US$710,400) to businessman Tommy Sumardi to assist Djoko with the removal of his Interpol red notice back when he was still on the run.
Djoko, once a fugitive implicated in the Bank Bali corruption case, said that he had negotiated with Tommy to arrange for his return to Indonesia, with Tommy initially asking for Rp 15 billion.
“We finally agreed on a figure of Rp 10 billion,” Djoko told the panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday as quoted by tempo.co.
Prosecutors have alleged that Tommy acted as a middleman between Djoko and two police generals.
Djoko had reportedly bribed the former National Police international relations division head, Insp. Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte, for US$270,000 and 200,000 Singapore dollars to remove Djoko’s Interpol red notice status.
Prosecutors also accused Djoko of giving $150,000 to Brig. Gen Prasetyo Utomo, the former head of the Civil Servant Investigators Supervisory and Coordination Bureau at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), for issuing a letter that had allowed Djoko to travel freely within the country.
The two police generals have admitted to receiving bribes from Djoko.
“The Rp 10 billion was used to process the red notice and the DPO [wanted list],” Djoko further said.
“We took care of it through the Interpol NCB [national central bureau] because, to our knowledge, the red notice was in there. We discussed it in March 2020, and my wife sent a letter to the NCB on April 16.”
Djoko was included on the Interpol red notice list after the Supreme Court sentenced him to two years in prison and ordered him to pay Rp 546 billion in restitution for his role in the high-profile Bank Bali corruption case in June 2009.
He fled the country a day before his conviction and remained at large for more than one decade before being arrested in Malaysia and deported to Indonesia in late July this year.
While he was at large, Djoko said that he had planned to file a case review, but as a convict is required to head directly to the Supreme Court to register a plea, he could not be represented.
“So the only way is to clean my name, and thus I made the effort through my friend, Tommy Sumardi,” Djoko said.
Tommy has offered himself up as a justice collaborator for the case in early September.
Besides Tommy, prosecutor Pinangki Sirna Malasari is also suspected of acting as Djoko’s middleman as she allegedly accepted money from Djoko to help him secure a Supreme Court acquittal for his conviction. (syk)