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It may or may not have been related to his brutal murder, but activist Jopi Peranginangin’s untimely death on Saturday came just before he was scheduled to release a book featuring his research into palm oil corruption in Indonesia.
Jeffry Saragih, director of Sawit Watch (Palm Oil Watch) of which Jopi was a member, said Jopi researched and investigated the suspected corruption of palm oil permits in North Borneo and Sulawesi for the past year.
Essentially, Jeffry said Jopi uncovered great potential for corruption and bribery in the way regional officials issued palm oil plantation permits to global palm oil companies.
“The plan was for the book to be released before the fasting month [of Ramadan], so around June 2015,” Jeffry said, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
However, Jeffry did not draw the conclusion that Jopi’s palm oil research was neccesarily the reason he was killed.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Navy confirmed that one of Jopi’s suspected murderers was a Navy private with the initials JL.
“Whether the suspect has been arrested or not, I have no information on that. But the suspect is known to be a member of the Indonesian Navy. His initials are JL,” said Navy Spokesman Manahan Simorangkir, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
The Military Police are investigating into JL’s suspected involvement in Jopi’s murder.
Jopi, a political and environmental activist, was beaten up and stabbed to death by an as-of-yet unidentified group of men in Kemang on Saturday.
