Families and friends show up in support to Hartati

JAKARTA. Dozens of family members, colleagues and supporters came to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) building in South Jakarta on Thursday, to give moral support to Siti Hartati Murdaya.

Hartati, one of the nation’s wealthiest tycoons, is detained at the KPK detention center in Kuningan (not Pondok Bambu as earlier reported) for bribing public officials.

Her family — husband Murdaya Poo and four children — came separately on Thursday morning while other colleagues and some Buddhist monks came later to greet the businesswoman who is also a Buddhist leader.

Murdaya told reporters before visiting Hartati that his wife was a victim of extortion.

“We have been there [Buol Regency] for 18 years. There was no bribery but extortion. The story is only half true. None of our family members does any such thing,” he said.

Murdaya questioned the legal reasoning for the KPK to put Hartati in detention. “Where was the telephone conversation recorded? It is all a lie,” he said.

The betrayal

KPK spokesman Johan Budi previously said the investigators decided to detain suspects if they could possibly eliminate evidence, abscond or commit further crimes.

The KPK also names suspects when they have at least two pieces of evidence and witnesses.

The KPK alleged that Hartati paid a Rp 3 billion (US$318,000) bribe to Buol Regent Amran Batalipu to issue a permit for her companies PT CCM and PT Hardaya Inti Plantation in Bukal district, Buol, Central Sulawesi. The regent was also detained by the KPK for allegedly accepting bribes.

Murdaya said that the land issue was a trivial thing that was not lucrative for their companies. “People have worked to develop the region for 18 years. No one wanted to develop the area,” he said, adding that his wife was so generous that she wanted to develop the region.

Murdaya even challenged people to go to Buol to see the plantations and how the business was there.

“The directors betrayed my wife and bribed the regent. She never permitted them to do so,” he said.

Hartati’s employee PT Hardaya Inti Plantation general manager, Yani Anshori, and PT. Hardaya
operational director, Gondo Sudjono, are standing trial in the same case.

Murdaya explained that around 3,500 employees would suffer if the factories were halted.

The Jakarta Post