Jakarta Immigration Official Apprehends Malaysian Impostor

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Officers at North Jakarta's Class I Immigration Office have arrested a Malaysian national who goes by the alias of Joshua Wijaya. The 53-years old man was arrested when he lodged an application for an Indonesian passport on Thursday, October 23, 2014.

"Officers became suspicious because the information that YKL gave during the interview did not match the documents that he had submitted," said Hambali Haryadinata, the Head of North Jakarta's Class I Immigration Office on Friday, October 24, 2014.

According to Hambali, YKL lodged an application for an Indonesian passport by using an identity card and family register issued by North Jakarta's Residency Registration Agency. Immigration officials were initially unaware of the forgery and declared that YKL had completed his document checklist - in fact, YKL had already taken been fingerprinted and photographed when alarms were raised during the interview.

Immigration officials became suspicious of YKL's during the interview. "His physical appearance and accent tipped us off - we suspected that he is not actually Indonesian," added Hambali.

During the interview, YKL initially told officials that he had spent some time in Malaysia to study. However, after further interrogation, YKL finally relented and admitted that he is indeed, a Malaysian national in possession of a valid Malaysian passport.

Apart from YKL, Immigration officials also arrested YBC, also known as Chandra Gunawan. The 50-years old man came to accompany Joshua to lodge his passport application. After further interrogation, it was revealed that Chandra is actually a South Korean national, who somehow had managed to get hold of an identity card issued by officials from Tugu Selatan sub-district in North Jakarta.

The Head of Immigration Enforcement at North Jakarta's Class I Immigration Office, David Elang, said that initial investigations into both suspects are now currently ongoing. YKL claims that he does not know that the documents that he had submitted are not legally valid. "YKL claims that he was scammed by YBC because YBC prepared all the documents for YKL," said David.

Both suspects are currently being held at a detention cell in North Jakarta's Immigration Office, and officials plan to transfer both suspects to Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta for further interrogations.

MOYANG KASIH DEWIMERDEKA