REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has declined to hand over Freeport's recording to the parliament's ethics council (MKD) on Thursday.
"The deputy attorney general for special crimes disclosed a statement given by PT Freeport Indonesia's President Director Maroef Sjamsuddin that he is not willing to submit the recording," MKD Deputy Chairman Junimart Girsang stated.
Based on his letter dated December 3, 2015, or after he was questioned by the MKD, Maroef noted that he did not want the evidence to be handed over or lent to anyone.
He explained that the flash drive, containing the recording he had submitted to the MKD, was a copy of the conversation recorded on his mobile phone that he had lent to the AGO, and so, he would not let anyone else take the phone.
Girsang noted that the recording was important for the MKD to be used as evidence. The MKD is yet to decide whether House Speaker Setya Novanto had violated ethics.
"Later, we will hold an internal meeting to decide what the MKD would do next," he revealed.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said had reported Novanto to the MKD with a transcript accusing him of seeking a stake in PT Freeport Indonesia in exchange of support for its bid to secure approval for a contract extension.
Read: Setya Novanto reports Sudirman Said to Criminal Investigation Police
The US company, which has large copper and gold mines in Papua, is seeking an extension of its contract, which will expire in 2021.
Acccording to the transcript of the conversation between Novanto and his business friend Riza Chalid and Sjamsuddin, the house speaker used the names of the president and vice president to convince Freeport that the contract would be extended.
The MKD has already summoned Said and Maroef for questioning in an open session broadcast live by television stations.
On Monday, Novanto denied all charges leveled against him before the MKD in a closed-door session.
Akbar Faisal, a member of the MKD, said he had information that both President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla would report Novanto to the police.
"I heard that the president and vice president would report Novanto to the police on charge of illegally using their names for personal gains," Faisal affirmed.
"I just heard the information, and I fully support the move," he noted in a short text message here on Tuesday while not divulging details of his source.
President Widodo was said to have been furious over the session questioning Novanto being closed to the media and the attempts of Novanto's supporters in the MKD to play down the seriousness of the charges leveled against him.
"It does not matter that I am called crazy, insane, or hardheaded, but when it concerns the institutional authority, misusing the name of the president for a 11 percent stake (in Freeport), this I could not accept. It is a matter of propriety and morality," he emphasized yesterday.
Earlier, Kalla had stated that Novanto was involved in a criminal conspiracy.
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