A team of officials from several government agencies are teaming up to bring back to Indonesia fugitives involved in the Bank Century bailout corruption case who fled overseas

August 29, 2013 Leave a comment

Bank Century Extraditions Loom

By Markus Junianto Sihaloho on 8:28 am August 29, 2013.
A team of officials from several government agencies are teaming up to bring back to Indonesia fugitives involved in the Bank Century bailout corruption case who fled oversees. Attorney General Basrief Arief said his office was extraditing two former Bank Century bosses: Hesham Al Warraq, who is now living in Saudi Arabia, and Rafat Ali Rizvi, who is in the United Kingdom. Basrief said the extraction effort was being facilitated by a team led by the Coordinating Ministry for Legal, Political and Security Affairs that also included the Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Police and Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).Basrief said the team met in July to discuss Rafat’s proposed extradition.

“The meeting was intended to finalize the extradition draft for Rafat and to complete necessary documents for the extradition,” Basrief said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Basrief said the team was preparing an affidavit related to Rafat.

“We will send it through the Indonesian Embassy in Britain once it’s ready so that the extradition process can start immediately,” he said.

A team from the House of Representatives, which is investigating the Bank Century case, met with Justice and Human Rights Ministry officials to discuss efforts to recover Bank Century assets from overseas.

Achsanul Qosasih, a member of the Democratic Party investigating the case, said the meeting was held to ask the officials to compile an inventory of assets that the country could reclaim.

“We asked [the ministry] to make an inventory of the assets, a list that contains the location, address, value, legal status and the chance to get it back,” Achsanul said on Wednesday.

Indra, a team member from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said lawmakers asked the asset recovery team to fulfill the House members’ promise to reveal the assets they had traced.

“We also asked them the problems that they encountered in the efforts to collect the assets,” Indra said.

Hendrawan Supratikno, another lawmaker, lamented the government’s inability to protect assets believed to be connected with the Bank Century case in Hong Kong. The value of the assets had allegedly fallen by up to 99 percent.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said that Bank Century assets in Hong Kong were worth $18 million, but Hendrawan said that the assets were initially estimated at $2 billion.

“We really regret this,” Hendrawan said, urging the government to accelerate the legal and asset recovery processes.

Amir, who heads the recovery team for overseas assets, said his team was still trying to bring back the assets.

He said the assets were scattered across several countries, including Hong Kong, Switzerland and the British dependency of Jersey.

“Some come in the form of trust funds. In Switzerland some of them are in cash,” Amir said.

The minister added that the government cannot confiscate the assets unless the team can prove that the assets were related to a crime.

“It’s hoped that the Indonesian legal system can prove that the assets were linked to the Bank Century case,” Amir said.

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