Anti Graft Body Detain Four Former Central Bankers

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Four former senior Bank Indonesia officials under investigation of the fund missappropriation case were taken into police custody on Thursday, one among them is President Yudhoyono's in-law Aulia Pohan.

Aulia Pohan was taken to Kelapa Dua detention facility in Depok, West Java at around 5:16 PM along with Maman Soemantri one fellow former deputy governor of the central bank.

The other two were Aslim Tadjuddin and Bunbunan Hutapea who were taken to police custody at the National Police Headquarters in Central Jakarta.

The four former officials were under investigation of the case that have brought former central bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullah sentenced to five years in prison.
The scandal took place in 2003 when the central bank channeled around US$ 60 billion to lawmakers as the parliament drafting a bill on the central bank. The remaining sum were used to provide legal assistance for senior central bankers involved in legal battle over charges of mishandling trillions of rupiah of liquidity assistance for collapsed banks during the 1998 Asian monetary crisis.

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Corruption Court Draft Bill Prioritized

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) Agung Laksono has asked the DPR Legal Commission to prioritize the Corruption Court draft bill.

“The house should commit to finishing the regulation,” said Agung yesterday (24/11).

The DPR Speaker said he was worried that the DPR could not complete the draft bill by December 19, the date set by the Constitutional Court.

This is because of the approaching legislative election in 2009.

“The election campaigns are getting intense,” said Agung.

EKO ARI WIBOWO

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President Yudhoyono Telephones President-Elect Barack Obama

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: President Yudhoyono made a telephone conversation with President-elect Barack Obama on Monday night from Seattle as the president heads back to Indonesia after attending two economic conferences in Washington DC and Lima.

President Yudhoyono congratulate Mr Obama on his election as the next US president at 4:15 PM PST, as the plane carrying the delegates made a brief stop in Seattle to refuel.

President Yuhoyono said the president elect who spent three years of his childhood in Indonesia conversed in Indonesian expressing his memories of Indonesian food and fruits and conveyed his intention to visit the country.

Barack Obama who was born in Hawaii, lived in Jakarta from 1967 to 1970 as his mother an American antroplogist moved to Indonesia with her second husband, an Indonesian student at the University of Hawaii.

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