Indonesia’s most wanted graft fugitive, Djoko Tjandra, is believed to have been residing in Malaysia as an expatriate on a Papua New Guinea passport issued under the name of “Joe Chan”.
Malaysiakini sighted a copy of the passport with an employment pass issued by Malaysia’s Immigration Department under Category 1, which includes individuals hired for key positions in a company.
According to details on the employment pass, Chan was hired as operations and development director by Mulia Property Development Sdn Bhd.
It further states that the employment pass was issued by the Immigration Department headquarters in Putrajaya on Sept 20, 2019, and remains valid for three years until Sept 20, 2022.
A check on the Immigration Department’s Expatriate Services Division website confirmed that the company had submitted all necessary documents on Sept 11 last year and their application was endorsed, indicating a successful hire for the individual using the Papua New Guinea passport.
The company involved in the construction of 1MDB’s Signature Tower in the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) is the local subsidiary for Indonesian property developer Mulia Group, controlled by Djoko’s brother Eka Tjandranegara as its president-director and owner.
When contacted, Indonesian watchdog Masyarakat Anti-Korupsi Indonesia (Maki) coordinator Boyamin Saiman said that questions surrounding Djoko’s citizenship have been the subject of a probe by a Papua New Guinea government ombudsman, who released their report in 2018.
“The Papua New Guinea ombudsman recommended its government to revoke his citizenship status which was granted in 2012.
“However, their recommendation to the government was ignored,” Boyamin told Malaysiakini yesterday.
Australia’s ABC News reported in April 2018 that the Papua New Guinea Ombudsman Commission’s report tabled in its Parliament had outlined what was found to be an “improper and unlawful” issuance of citizenship and passport to Djoko.
According to the report, Djoko had applied for a Papua New Guinea passport along with a statutory declaration changing his name to Joe Chan.
He also allegedly changed his date of birth from Aug 27, 1951, to Sept 27, 1963.
This was later reportedly confirmed by Indonesia’s ambassador to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, Andriana Supandi, who revealed that Djoko’s latest passport under the name Joe Chan was issued in January 2018 and valid until January 2023.
In Indonesia, an ongoing investigation, which followed Djoko’s arrest on July 30, was prompted by his return in early May to renew his Indonesian identification card and passport.
At the time, Djoko’s legal counsel Anita Kolopaking reportedly said her client had applied for his Indonesian passport at the South Jakarta Immigration Office, but it was not issued until June 23, a day after his return to Kuala Lumpur.
“So I asked him what passport did he use (to leave)? But he said, ‘you don’t have to know that’,” Anita was quoted as saying.
It was discovered that Djoko, who first fled Indonesia in 2009 to escape from serving a graft conviction, had succeeded in removing himself from Interpol’s red notice list while living in exile.
Following public outcry, he was once again declared as a wanted man by Indonesian authorities on June 27, about a month prior to his arrest.
Since then, Indonesian tycoon Tommy Sumardi, an in-law of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, has been accused of bribing two senior police generals to facilitate the removal of Djoko’s Interpol red notice and assist his travels.
The police generals were later removed from their positions for allegedly accepting the bribe.
Djoko’s alleged connections in Malaysia were previously raised by Indonesia’s former attorney-general, HM Prasetyo, who claimed that the then Malaysian attorney-general, Apandi Ali, had in 2016 made a personal request for him to consider dropping the 68-year-old tycoon’s conviction and allowing him to return as a free man.
Malaysian police have so far remained tight-lipped on details surrounding Djoko’s arrest, although their Indonesian counterparts have reportedly given their thanks for the former’s cooperation.
Malaysiakini has contacted Mulia Property Development for comment. – Malaysiakini