TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan’s name comes up in the Panama Papers, which is listed as a director of Seychelles-based company Mayfair International Ltd.
Vice President Jusuf “JK” Kalla, who has been involved in disagreements with Luhut, carefully chose his words in commenting the issue. Through his spokesperson, Hussein Abdullah, JK said that Luhut’s involvement in the Panama Papers must be confirmed, since individuals listed in the documents did not necessarily commit a crime.
Hussen said that he could not confirm whether JK would summon Luhut to clarify the issue.
“As far as I know, [JK] has no plan to summon him [Luhut]. The question should be directed to the State [Palace],” Hussein said.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s spokesperson Johan Budi Sapto Pribowo refused to comment on Luhut’s involvement in the Panama Papers.
“I don’t know about that yet, since I haven’t read the data,” Johan said, adding that he was not sure yet whether Jokowi would summon Luhut.
Luhut on Thursday, April 21, 2016 denied his affiliation with the company.
The Panama Papers are documents leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that specializes in the creation of discreet, off-shore shell companies in tax havens nations, such as British Virgin Islands. The documents were first leaked in early 2015 by Germany-based newspaper Suddeustsche Zeitung.
The newspaper decided to work with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to organize a global investigation in collaboration with 400 journalists from 100 media around the world, including Tempo.
ISTMAN MP
