His release was made due to the end of his 120-day detention term on Thursday at 24 hours, Spokesman of the Attorney General`s Office Noor Rochmad said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Former police chief detective Commissioner General Susno Duadji would have been released from the police Mobile Brigade (Brimob)`s detention center in Kelapa Dua, West Java town of Depok, on early Friday.

His release was made due to the end of his 120-day detention term on Thursday at 24 hours, Spokesman of the Attorney General`s Office Noor Rochmad said here Thursday.

"On Thursday at 24 hours, Susno Duadji will have been freed for the sake of law," he said.

Susno had been detained at the Brimob jail in Kelapa Dua, Depok, since May 11, 2010 after the police investigators named him suspect.

They accused him of receiving a bribe of Rp500 million over the Salmah Arowana Lestari case.

Susno was also accused of abusing the funds for securing the 2008 elections in West Java Province.

Noor Rochmad said Susno would no longer be detained until the South Jakarta district court`s panel of judges made their final verdict.

"However, Susno will remain tried," he said adding that the end of Susno`s detention term was partly caused by the presence of lots of witnesses for his court processes.

For the Salmah Arowana Lestari case, there were 60 witnesses that the court needs to invite while for the West Java provincial elections, there were 90 witnesses, he said.

Besides big number of witnesses that the court needs to invite, Susno himself did not show up at the court for five times. "These have caused Susno`s court processes to take longer time," he said.

On February 14, the public prosecutor had demanded that Susno be sentenced to seven years in jail by considering that, as the police chief detective, Susno did not support the efforts to combat corruption crimes and was not deeply sorry for what he had done.

In the Salmah Arowana Lestari case, the police investigators based their decision to detain Susno on the testimonies of such people as Sjahril Djohan, Haposan Hutagalung, and Adjunct Senior Commissioner Syamsu Rizal.

The arowana fish farm case was related to a dispute between a Singaporean businessman (only identified as HKH) and his Indonesian counterpart (only identified as AS alias Am).

HKH reportedly had given Rp100 billion to his Indonesian partner to engage in the arowana fish business in Pekanbaru, Riau Province.

The Singaporean businessman had also handed over arowana fingerlings with a total value of Rp32 billion.

Initially, the police considered the arowana fish case to be a civil one but later the National Police Headquarters changed its mind and categorized it as a criminal one.

Susno Duadji himself had ever argued that the arowana fish case should be a civil lawsuit because it was more of a business dispute than a criminal offense.

The police investigators asked Susno Duadji about it because the business dispute occurred when he was still the national police chief detective.

Susno Duadji has become so popular in Indonesia after revealing the case of rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan, who had billions of rupiah in his bank accounts.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011