The Freeport extortion scandal just got even uglier after House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Setya Novanto reported Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said to the National Police’s Crimes Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) yesterday.
Setya’s legal counsel, Firman Wijaya, announced today that they are reporting Sudirman for defamation, slander, and violations to the ITE (Electronic Transaction Information) Law after the minister accused Setya of trying to extort billions of dollars worth of shares from mining giants Freeport-McMoRan for the company’s contract re-negotiations in Indonesia.
Steering the conversation away from his client’s involvement in the alleged extortion, Firman said Sudirman’s crime was that his accusation was based on a recorded conversation, which he says the minister obtained illegally.
“It was from an illegal recording, but it was spread everywhere. This is published defamation,” Firman said today, as quoted by Tempo.
During a separate occasion, Police Chief Badrodin Haiti said the recording was not illegally obtained.
The recording was made by Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin when he, Setya and businessman Mohammad Riza Chalid met in June to discuss gold and copper miner PT Freeport’s mining contract re-negotiation in Indonesia, which expires in 2021.
The recording revealed that Setya lied by claiming to act on behalf of President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla to secure shares from Freeport.
Maroef handed the recording over to Sudirman Said, who in turn reported the scandal to the DPR Ethics Council. However, the public believes many within the Ethics Council are protecting Setya, particularly after Setya’s hearing in front of the council was closed to the public.
Akbar Faisal, a member of the Ethics Council from Jokowi’s coalition, said that the president and vice president are going to report Setya Novanto to the police for trying to profit off of their names.
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