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After End to Travel Ban, Yusril Wants Graft Charge Against Him Dropped
Rangga Prakoso | December 30, 2011

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Corruption suspect Yusril Ihza Mahendra says the Attorney General’s Office should drop all charges against him after a travel ban imposed on the lawyer was recently lifted.

“This is the logic of the law, unless we all have lost our senses,” he said on Wednesday.

Yusril, a former Justice Minister, has been named a suspect for illegally appointing Sarana Rekatama Dinamika, founded by Hartono Tanoesoedibjo, to run a corporate registration Web site for the Justice Ministry. Sarana allegedly pocketed Rp 410 billion ($45.1 million) while running the site between 2001 and 2008.

Hartono, the brother of media mogul Harry Tanoesoedibjo, is also a suspect in the case.

The AGO alleges the company pocketed 90 percent of the revenue generated and kicked back 10 percent to ministry officials.

The investigation into the case began in November 2008 and five suspects have been tried.

Three former ministry officials have been sentenced to one year imprisonment each, but two other suspects in the case, former director general Romli Atmasasmita and former Sarana director Yohanes Waworuntu, had their conviction quashed by the Supreme Court.

Immigration office spokesman Herawan Sukoaji said the travel ban against Yusril and Hartono expired on Tuesday.

Hindiana, the assistant director of intelligence at the AGO, said that law enforcers still had not decided whether or not to propose a new travel ban against Yusril and Hartono.

“We are waiting for a request from the [AGO’s] special crimes unit. It would be rude if we extended [the travel ban] ourselves,” he said.

Yusril was named a suspect in June last year, although he has not been detained yet. The AGO has made little progress in the case against the former minister, with no signs of when Yusril will face trial.

Yusril said that it was time for the AGO to end his legal limbo by dropping the case.

The AGO, he said, should have reflected on the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn the guilty verdicts against both Romli and Yohanes.

But Hindiana said that although the court had ruled in favor of Romli and Yohanes, that did not automatically mean that Yusril was innocent.

The court argued that no state funds had been lost in the scheme, saying that the Web site was funded entirely by private investors.

The court also argued that the 2009 law that listed the fees companies had to pay for using the system as state income did not apply retroactively.