Jakarta, NU Online
General chairman of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) KH Said Aqil Siradj congratulated the government over the arrest of Muhammad Nazaruddin in Cartagena, Colombia on Tuesday.

"The (Nazaruddin's) arrest is an amazing success. We must be thankful for. But let us not be in the fun, there have still been big tasks behind it," Said told NU Online here on Tuesday (9/8).

Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, welcoming news of the arrest of the fugitive graft suspect, said it was important that he be brought back home unharmed.

“We mustn’t let anything bad happen to him. Bear in mind that there are probably many people who feel uncomfortable with his arrest,” Yudhoyono told reporters after breaking the fast at the Military Headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.

Yudhoyono said he had asked National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo to ensure Nazaruddin’s safety.

He further expressed his hope that Nazaruddin’s return would enable the flurry of accusations surrounding the fugitive to be cleared up, including those made against Yudhoyono’s own Democratic Party chairman, Anas Urbaningrum.

“I hope he can reveal as completely as possible any and all details regarding anyone’s misconduct,” he said.

However, he said that if Nazaruddin had information relating to Democrat members, he hoped he will report it to the party’s Advisory Council so sanctions could be meted out to anyone found to have violated party ethics.

Gen. Timur Pradopo declined to say when Nazaruddin would be repatriated from South America. He also said that the name and photo in the passport Nazaruddin used were not his own.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam confirmed earlier on Monday that Nazaruddin, who had gone into hiding after flying to Singapore on May 23, was arrested in Cartagena, Colombia.

“He had falsified his name in the passport he was using, but his fingerprints remained the same. We have compared the fingerprints in our database record with those of the man arrested in Colombia and they are a match,” Anton said.

Anton said a team of seven people — five police, a immigration official and an Interpol agent — had followed Nazaruddin from the Dominican Republic, where he was believed to have used a fake passport.

“He was in Singapore, but he wanted to deceive us into thinking he moved on to Kuala Lumpur when in fact he went to Vietnam, then to Cambodia. From there, he chartered a private jet which headed to Bogota via Madrid and the Dominican Republic,” Anton said.

Nazaruddin and his wife have since been flown to Bogota.

Anton said that Nazaruddin was taken into custody on Sunday at 2 a.m. local time, and that he was in the company of his wife and several people whose identitie s were not yet clear.

He said that once back in the country, police would transfer Nazaruddin into the custody of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto said the man believed to be Nazaruddin had used a passport under the name M. Syahrudin, with a photo that was not his own.

Djoko, accompanied by Timur, said a joint team from the National Police, the KPK, the Immigration Office and the Foreign Ministry would go to Bogota soon to ascertain the identity of the man.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said the commission had received information “two or three days ago” that a fake passport was being used by a man with Nazruddin’s physical features.

Yusuf Rizal, head of nongovernmental organization People’s Information Center (Lira), which had previously offered a Rp 150 million ($17,700) bounty for the capture of Nazaruddin, said the money would be used instead to help those reporting other corruption cases. “The money can be used for people in rural areas if they need funds to unveil local corruption cases,” Yusuf said. (enh)