National police chief General Sutanto had vowed to take legal action against any police officer involved in illegal logging or log smuggling in the country.
"We want to deal with illegal logging activities conclusively. Whoever is suspected to be involved will be investigated," the state-run Antara news agency quoted Sutanto as saying.
At least 14 police officers in West Kalimantan province were being held at the national police headquarters in Jakarta for questioning, he said.
"The investigations are being conducted by the National Police general supervisory inspector," Sutanto said, adding that they were questioned on suspicion of having colluded with log smugglers in West Kalimantan.
Sutanto, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said he supported the forestry ministry's plan to cooperate with neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia, in an attempt to stop log smuggling from the country.
West Kalimantan police last month named 26 people as suspects in illegal logging cases, including 14 boat crew members, six officers of the Ketapang transportation service, eight illegal log owners - with two of them still at large - and one mediator between illegal logging financiers and loggers.
No comments:
Post a Comment