Megawati will not heed KPK’s summon in traveler’s checks case: Politician

JAKARTA. Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Gayus Lumbuun said his party’s chairperson, Megawati Soekarnoputri, would not heed the summons of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Monday.

The KPK has summoned Megawati as a witness in the case of travelers’ checks which were allegedly disbursed as bribes to help a candidate win a post at the central bank in 2004.

It was alleged that the checks were distributed to various high-level politicians in exchange for their support for Miranda Goeltom, who later became BI’s senior deputy governor.

The KPK has detained a number of legislators who were accused of receiving the traveler’s checks.

Several suspects from the PDI-P have requested that Megawati, along with several others such as Hasyim Muzadi, who was her running partner during the 2004 election, be summoned as witnesses.

Head of the PDI-P’s Legal Division Gayus Lumbuun said not all of the detainee’s requests could be fulfilled, “Especially if [granted] it could become a political issue, regarding her position as the party chairperson,” he said on Friday as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

He also said the summons was irrelevant, because the traveler’s checks incident occurred in the House of Representatives.

The PDI-P’s team of lawyers would go to the KPK instead on Monday, Gayus said. (The Jakarta Post)