Indonesian fugitive Paulus Tannos contests extradition in Singapore's State Courts
SINGAPORE: The hearing into the extradition of Indonesian fugitive Paulus Tannos began at the State Courts on Monday (Jun 23) with Tannos' lawyers objecting to the admission of certain documents.
Tannos, a Singapore permanent resident, is wanted by the Indonesian authorities for his role in a corruption case linked to the Indonesian government's electronic ID card project that is said to have caused the state about 2.3 trillion rupiah (US$140 million) in losses.
Also known as Tjhin Thian Po, he appeared at the dock dressed in a white shirt as the case proceeded.
The 70-year-old holds a diplomatic passport from West African country Guinea-Bissau and has been living in Singapore since 2017.
He was arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) on Jan 17 and has remained in remand after his application for bail was rejected.
Before the current committal hearing, Tannos was repeatedly asked by the court if he wished to consent to his surrender to Indonesia. He repeatedly declined to be surrendered.
Since he did not consent to his surrender to Indonesia, a committal hearing was fixed for Jun 23 to 25, where the court will hear evidence to determine whether he is liable to be surrendered to Indonesia under the Extradition Act and Extradition Treaty.
The court will consider the evidence presented, including the formal extradition documents provided by Indonesia, as well as Tannos' own evidence.
START OF HEARING
Tannos is represented by lawyers Bachoo Mohan Singh from BMS Law, as well as Suang Wijaya and Hamza Malik from Eugene Thuraisingam, while the Singapore authorities are represented by State Counsels Vincent Leow, Sivakumar Ramasamy, Sarah Siaw and Emily Zhao from the Attorney-General's Chambers.
The state counsels will argue that Tannos is liable to be surrendered and his extradition is not prohibited.
They said on Monday that Tannos is wanted by Indonesia to stand trial on one charge of corruption. Court documents showed that the offence carries life imprisonment or a jail term of between four and 20 years and a fine.
Before the first witness was called, Tanno's lawyer, Mr Singh, argued against the admission of certain documents, which were fresh affidavits from the Indonesian police.
Mr Singh said these affidavits were recorded only after his client's arrest and were "manufactured".
He argued that there were original documents, which comprised the formal request on his side, filed in March this year. These were a bundle of documents consisting of more than 1,600 pages tied in red ribbon as part of a formality.
However, the affidavits were not part of these.
These affidavits were ready in April and sent to the defence counsels only on Jun 12 this year, Mr Singh added. He also said that he wanted to raise this matter because the additional documents were put together with the original documents "without any explanation".
One of his objections will also be on the quality of the evidence. Mr Singh will be arguing that the evidence is not reliable because it was taken some 15 years only after the alleged events in 2010 or 2011.
Due to these inadequacies, the court should throw out the documents and not order the extradition since the documents did not comply with formal requirements, he said.
Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan allowed the proceedings to continue with objections to be raised as the hearing continued.
The state then called its first witness, CPIB's chief special investigator Alvin Tang, who first arrested Tannos on Jan 17 this year.
Under examination by the state counsel, Mr Tang told the court that he applied for a warrant of apprehension before arresting Tannos at his residence at about 12.30pm.
Mr Tang also said that in April, investigators from the Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, which is the Corruption Eradication Commission of Indonesia, submitted supplementary affidavits the same month.
Mr Suang, another of Tannos' lawyers, then objected to the series of documents being admitted on the basis that they did not comply with the requirement for overseas documents to be authenticated.
For Tannos' arrest warrant, Mr Suang said the original document, in Bahasa Indonesian language, was not placed before the court.
Pointing to two affidavits submitted by the Indonesian authorities, Mr Suang also highlighted "defects" in the documents that formed the basis of the defence's objections.
These included how the official seals on the documents were not translated and how the signatures of the witnesses were not authenticated.
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