TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-National Police Chief General Badrodin Haiti said on Monday, October 12, that the police have named two foreign companies as suspects in forest and land fires.
He said his office would conduct intensive investigation into the activities of the two foreign companies, one from Malaysia and the other from China.
The police chief said the police are also investigating possible involvement of a Singaporean firm in forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Haiti also revealed that a total of 12 companies have been named as suspects in forest and land fire cases in Sumatra and Kalimantan. He said the police had received 244 reports of crimes related to burning of forest and land areas.
Of the 244 reports, he explained that 26 of them were being investigated, while 218 of them have entered the investigation phase. From the 218 investigations, 113 were related to individuals and 48 involved companies.
All the reports were received from the provincial police of six regions of South Sumatra, Jambi, and Riau as well as Central, West, and South Kalimantan, all places affected by forest and land fires.
Haiti pointed out that all the suspects had violated Article 108, Number 32 of the 2009 Act, in which anyone found guilty faces three to ten years of imprisonment and a fine of at least Rp3 billion and a maximum of Rp10 billion.
ANTARA | NZM
