Aceh Civil Servant Accuses Prosecutors of ‘Blackmail’

Banda Aceh, TAG. A civil servant facing graft charges on Thursday accused three prosecutors in Aceh of extortion, pointing out that he had tried negotiating with them to bring down the amount of bribe money they demanded but had failed, and now the prosecutors were threatening to name him a suspect in a Rp 1.6 billion ($179,200) corruption scandal.

 “They say my seven friends and I are going to be declared suspects. They say we have to pay Rp 10 million each to get the charges dropped,” Nasruddin, an official at the agriculture agency in Aceh Jaya district, said on Thursday. 



He added that he had attempted to negotiate with prosecutors in an effort to bring the bribe down to Rp 8 million per person, since “some of my friends don’t have enough money.” 



Nasruddin admitted that he had been questioned several times by prosecutors as a witness in a Rp 1.6 billion corruption scandal involving a 2009 cattle-breeding project. 



The prosecutors’ office in Calang, Aceh Jaya, has to date declared at least two officials from the agriculture agency as suspects in the cattle-breeding case. Aidarus and Ali Amran were arrested two weeks ago. 



Nasruddin said that in 2009, he had been appointed head of the breeding project’s technical team, which included his seven friends.



“However, I never received any letter legalizing my appointment as the team head,” he said. 

“Therefore, legally, I wasn’t really involved in the project at all. I explained this to the prosecutors, but ... they continue to threaten me,” he added.



“By the way, prosecutors have blackmailed eight other people linked to the project. In all, they have threatened 15 victims. But not a single one of us will pay. None of us ever will, because this is blackmail,” he said, adding that he had been threatened in text messages and phone calls. 



He said that when he was last summoned to the prosecutor’s office, they showed him a letter, stating that he had already been named a suspect. 



“At that point I pleaded with them not to arrest me because my son was sick. I’m so terrified. I’m innocent. Why must I go to jail?”

Nasruddin said, adding that he and his colleagues had reported the alleged extortion attempts to the Aceh Jaya district head, Azhar Abdurrahman.



“I even told Azhar that I wanted to resign from my post because I’m so afraid,” he added. 



Jaenuddin, the head of the Calang Prosecutors’ Office, refused to comment on the matter. 



When the Globe called him he not only refused to answer questions on the case, he proceeded to hang up the phone.[]