Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Law and Human Rights Ministry`s Immigration Directorate General has issued a travel ban on former police chief detective Senior Commissioner Susno Duadji.

"The Letter of the Attorney General`s Office has been received and followed up by the Directorate General of Immigration. Susno has been banned from going abroad for a year," the ministry`s spokesman, Bambang Catur said here Friday evening.

Authorities at the directorate general received the ATO`s letter dated on February 17, 2011, asking for the imposition of a travel ban on Susno Duadji on Friday at about 8.56 AM Jakarta time, he said.

Head of the South Jakarta Prosecutor`s Office M.Yusuf had asked the related authorities to impose a travel ban on Susno Duadji who was 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 90-day detention period on Thursday at 24 hours, spokesman for the Attorney General`s Office Noor Rochmad said on Thursday.

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

They accused him of receiving a bribe of Rp500 million in connection with the Salmah Arowana Lestari case.

Susno was also accused of abusing 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 issued a their final verdict.

"However, Susno will still stand trial," he said adding that the end of Susno`s detention period 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 summon while for the West Java provincial elections, there were 90 witnesses, he said.

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

On February 14, the public prosecutor had demanded that Susno be sentenced to seven years in jail considering that, as police chief detective, Susno did not support efforts to combat corruption and was not 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 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 (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.

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.
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Editor: AA Ariwibowo
Copyright © ANTARA 2011