Sandiaga to be grilled in land embezzlement case

JAKARTA. Amid his ongoing campaign activities, Jakarta deputy gubernatorial candidate Sandiaga Uno has confirmed that he will meet a Jakarta Police summons on Friday to be questioned as a witness in a land embezzlement case.

Sandiaga’s spokesperson, Alex Yahya Datuk, said on Wednesday that the businessman was ready for the questioning and underlined that the public should maintain presumption of innocence with regard to Sandiaga in the case.

Alex suggested the case was politically motivated, saying it might be related to Sandiaga’s candidacy in the Jakarta gubernatorial election as the deputy candidate of Anies Baswedan.

“We need to make something clear here, the case broke out during the election period,” he told reporters.

A businessman named Joni Hidayat filed a police report with the Jakarta Police against Sandiaga, claiming the latter had allegedly embezzled money related to a land sale in South Tangerang, Banten, in 2012.

Sandiaga was issued a second summons after he failed to appear for questioning last week, arguing that he had to report his official wealth report to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). (Indra Budiari)