After having failed to meet two police summons for a witness statement last week, Siwi Widi Purwanti, an air hostess who has been accused by a whistleblower of being a key figure in an alleged prostitution scandal within flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, finally showed up at the Jakarta Metro Police today.
The whistleblower, known only by the Twitter handle @digeeembok, alleged that Siwi is one of several Garuda flight attendants who received preferential treatment after becoming involved in affairs with Garuda executives. In Siwi’s case, @digeeembok said that she is also involved in affairs with other bosses of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), even assisting in money laundering schemes for some.
Siwi, who denied all the allegations, reported @digeeembok to the Jakarta Metro Police for defamation. However, she twice failed to meet police summons to give her statement in the case last week — first on Tuesday and then on Friday — due to what she said were work and family commitments.
Siwi finally fulfilled police summons this morning and is set to testify against @digeeembok, but she dodged reporters at the Jakarta Metro Police HQ and police have been quiet on details regarding developments in the case.
“Siwi arrived at 11am to give her statement to investigators,” Jakarta Metro Police spokesman Yusri Yunus told CNN Indonesia, without giving further details on her statement.
Yusri said that two other witnesses, whose identities were not disclosed, are scheduled to provide statements for the defamation case on Thursday.
Turbulence in Garuda
In December 2019, Garuda was besieged by a number of highly damaging scandals, beginning with the dismissal of its president director, Ari Askhara, after he was caught smuggling Harley Davidson motorbike parts and expensive folding bikes using a Garuda plane. Then, @digeeembok made some super explosive allegations about the existence of “prostitution” within the ranks of Garuda’s air hostesses.
One of the main points @digeeembok made in his hugely popular (and long) Twitter threads was that some air hostesses received preferential treatment after becoming involved in affairs with Garuda executives. In some cases, the air hostesses were willing participants in the affairs, but others were said to be pressured into the relationships by their higher ups.
What is likely going to be a major hindrance to the investigation in the defamation case is that authorities have so far been unable to determine who is behind the @digeeembok account. After all, Siwi is not the first person to file a defamation lawsuit against @digeeembok — Garuda’s cabin crew VP, Roni Eka Mirsa, also reported the whistleblower to the police after he was accused of being a “pimp” by prostituting air hostesses to airline bosses, but police investigation into the matter seems to have gone nowhere.
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