Sarmi District Head Arrested in Papua Graft Case
[Updated at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, 2015, to add details on graft cases and photo]
Jayapura, Papua. The head of Sarmi district in Papua province was arrested in the early ours of Thursday as part of a corruption probe.
Officials from the Attorney General's Office arrested Mesak Manibor at Sarmi town at around 2:30 a.m.
Two local government officials and two other people were with him at the time.
Sr. Comr. Patrige Renwarin of the Papua Police confirmed the arrest, saying Mesak was to be flown to Jakarta from Jayapura on Thursday afternoon.
Besides the AGO personnel, 25 Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers took part in the arrest, as well as ten Papua Police detectives. The officials arrived at the district head's residence in ten vehicles.
"There was no resistance during the arrest by the Sarmi district head or anyone else, and during the trip to Jayapura the situation was safe and everything under control," said Adj. Sr. Comr. Nurhabri of the Papua Police's detectives unit.
Mesak is accused of corruption as part of the construction, with state funds, of his official residence and he also allegedly misused social funds.
A total of Rp 4.5 billion ($345,000) was allocated for improvements to the official residence in the 2013 budget, but Mesak is said to have used those funds to renovate his private home. A contractor has also been named a suspect in this case.
The district head is also said to have spent up to Rp 67 billion on "welfare projects" — even though only Rp 16.5 billion was allocated for this in the budget. Sarmi residents however appear to have seen very little of these funds being used for their benefit.
Additional reporting by Roberth Isidorus Vanwi
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