JAKARTA. Despite oil tycoon Reza Chalid not fulfilling a summons for questioning at the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), junior attorney for special crimes at the AGO, Arminsyah, claims his office can still investigate Reza’s involvement in an alleged conspiracy related to gold and copper miner Freeport Indonesia’s contract of work extension.

“We are striving to get information from Reza Chalid. We have sent a letter summoning him for questioning to his home address and to the addresses of his ex-wife and his son,” said Arminsyah, referring to steps taken by the AGO in December last year.

The attorney further said the AGO might analyze the Freeport conspiracy case, including looking at Reza’s involvement, based on data obtained so far if the businessman kept refusing to fulfil its summons.

“It’s possible for us to look into the matter without Reza’s statement because we have received information from Maroef,” said Arminsyah, referring to former Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin.

A transcript of a recorded conversation between Maroef and then House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto in June last year suggested that the lawmaker had promised to facilitate the extension of Freeport’s mining contract, due to expire in 2021, in exchange for the company giving 11 percent of its shares to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and 9 percent to Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Maroef fulfilled an AGO summons for questioning in December 2015. The AGO was set to question Setya on Wednesday, but as of 3.30 p.m., the Golkar Party has not yet shown up.

“We found similarities between what we heard on the sound recording and real voices of the people at the meeting, as is explained in the final report of an examination conducted by a verification team from the Bandung Institute of Technology [...],” said Arminsyah.

As of Dec. 30, the AGO had questioned 16 witnesses in the case, including Maroef, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said, who initially reported Setya to the House's ethics council, Freeport Indonesia commissioner Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney general and assistant presidential chief of staff Darmawan "Darmo" Prasodjo, whose name was mentioned in the transcript of the June 8 meeting.

Setya was previously accused of claiming to have won the approval of Jokowi and Kalla to secure shares and projects from Freeport in exchange for helping the company extend its contract and continue operating its gold mine, one of the world's largest, in Papua. The AGO has yet to name any suspects in the case.

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie