Police suspected of covering up spy case on Indonesia

By Lee Hyo-sik

Police are apparently in a dilemma regarding their investigation into who was responsible for breaking into the hotel room of an Indonesian presidential envoy last week, with mounting evidence pointing to the country’s spy agency as the perpetrator of the bungled theft.

If the National Intelligence Service (NIS) is confirmed to be involved in the crime, it could deal a serious blow to Korea’s global image while straining diplomatic ties with the Southeast Asian nation.

Suspicions abound

The Namdaemun Police Station has backtracked on its statement concerning the investigation since it began, raising suspicions that it is attempting to cover up NIS involvement in the case. Police initially said they had no contact with the agency regarding the incident.

But they later said an NIS agent visited the station to discuss the probe shortly after the Indonesian delegation reported the break-in.

Early Thursday morning, about 20 hours after the Indonesian envoy reported the case to the police, a man who identified himself as an NIS agent, visited the Namdaemun Police Station, and asked about the investigation, according to a police officer.

The officer said the man asked investigators to beef up information security regarding the case, stressing it was a matter of national security. This aspect has caused most to believe the intruders were indeed NIS agents.

Additionally, investigators first said they had failed to secure fingerprints of the intruders, but later admitted to getting fingerprints from the scene.

At the same time, they had initially claimed that they secured “blurry” CCTV images of the people entering the 19th floor of the Lotte Hotel in central Seoul, where the delegation was staying.

Some hotel staffers, however, claimed that the images were clear enough to identify faces. It is also known that there are more than two surveillance cameras installed around the hotel room as opposed to the announcement of the police that only two were set up.

Spy agency under pressure

Police officers are denying some media reports that they handed over all the investigation-related records to the spy agency.

The NIS is coming under increasing pressure to reveal whether it was spying on the Indonesian delegates as there is growing evidence that it has been trying to cover up the incident by pressuring the police not to disclose their investigation findings.

Last Wednesday, the Indonesian delegation reported to police that three intruders — two men and one woman — were caught using a USB memory stick to copy computer files from notebook computers belonging to an Indonesian delegate, before fleeing the scene with one laptop.

They hid at an emergency stairway only to be caught by a hotel employee, and so they returned the notebook and left the hotel.

The envoys, representing Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, arrived last Tuesday for a three-day visit to discuss bilateral cooperation with their South Korean counterparts.

The delegation had met with President Lee Myung-bak Wednesday for talks on expanding economic and military cooperation before returning home the next day.