Jakarta. A working committee at the House of Representatives tasked with investigating terminated police probes into Riau wildfires has found the cases were dropped on the testimony of unqualified experts and marred by conflicts of interest.

Investigations into 18 plantation companies who allegedly burnt land in the province began late last year, with police eventually issuing warrants to terminate probes into 15 of the companies earlier this year.

Citing a lack of evidence in these cases, police defended the decision amid protests from environmental activists and provisional conclusions made by lawmakers that the cases had been bungled and were rife with irregularities.

Asul Sani, a member of the House of Representatives' working committee on land and forest fires, pointed to issues with experts invited by police to testify in the cases.

"The expert witnesses explained about land and forest fires. But the educational backgrounds of some of them are in public health," Arsul said on Tuesday (27/09), when the committee summoned Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Supriyanto.

Other witnesses include officials from the Riau Environment Agency which could create a conflict of interest, he said.

"The agency has indeed been tasked with overseeing the plantation companies all this time. So, if the officials say they have found recurring misdeeds their work would be called into question as well," Arsul said.

Land and forest fires are an annual issue in Sumatra and Kalimantan, with last year's fires causing choking haze across the western side of the country, Singapore and Malaysia. This disaster prompted the formation of the working committee last month.

The committee summoned Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya last week and is set to summon representatives from the plantation companies as well as expert witnesses in the terminated police investigations at upcoming hearings.