It Took Indonesia a Year to Extradite Fugitive in State Bank Fraud from Serbia

Several teams from the law and human rights ministry and the national police were deployed to Serbia to discuss the matter with their relevant counterparts to extradite Maria, he said.

He said it took a long process before the extradition was taken place as Maria’s lawyer and a European country also talked to the Serbian government to prevent her from being extradited.

“Knowing that Maria’s detention period was going to end on July 17, we intensified our lobbying and meetings, and yesterday at its peak we got a green light,” the minister said.

The extradition process involved diplomacy in the legal sector, good relations between the two countries, and the government’s commitment to law enforcement.

But, he said, the process of bringing Maria back to Indonesia also faced a “disturbance” with the fugitive's effort to escape the extradition. However, the Serbian government was firm in its commitment to extradite Maria to Indonesia.

“Indonesia and Serbia are not yet bound by extradition agreements, but through a high-level approach with the officials of the Serbian government and given the excellent relations between the two countries, Maria Pauline Lumowa's extradition request was granted," Yasonna said.

It was a reciprocal move after the 2015 extradition of fugitive Nikolo Iliev to Serbia.

Previously, Indonesia also had twice proposed the extradition process to Netherland’s government in 2010 and 2014 because Maria turned out to have been a Dutch citizen since 1979.

However, both requests were rejected. The government of the Netherlands instead gave an option for Maria to be tried in the Netherlands.

Chronology of the extradition process

The extradition process began when Maria was arrested by the Interpol at the Nikola Tesla International Airport, Belgrade on July 16, 2019, following a red notice issued by Indonesia.

“After the arrest, we responded to the notification from the government of Serbia, Interpol Serbia,” the minister said in a report by Kompas TV.

Also read: No Guarantee Indonesia Will Reach High-Income Country Status: Finance Chief Sri Mulyani

The ministry soon acted on the information of the arrest by sending a letter of request to accelerate the extradition on July 31, 2019, and September 3, 2019.

Maria is one of the suspects of BNI fraud worth 1.7 trillion rupiahs through a fictitious letter of credit (L/C). The case began in the period from October 2002 to July 2003. At that time BNI disbursed loans worth $136 million and 56 million euros or the equivalent of 1.7 trillion rupiahs at the then exchange rate to PT Gramarindo Group, which is owned by Maria and Adrian Waworuntu.