The Attorney General's Office (AGO) is conducting an internal probe into several top officials implicated in the Artalyta Suryani-Urip Tri Gunawan bribery scandal.

However, the move raised questions over the credibility of such a investigation since it was being carried out by an internal team of the corruption-tainted AGO.

Anti-corruption activists said the probe would be credible and effective only if it involved experts from outside the institution.

"I strongly advise the AGO to take the current opportunity to totally reform its institution by welcoming outsiders to join," Mas Achmad Santosa, senior United Nations Development Program advisor for human rights, legal and justice reform, said Tuesday.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji "really needs colleagues with strong leadership skills" to boost his office's image, he added.

Tuesday's internal probe started with Deputy Attorney General for State Administration Untung Udji Santoso and former investigation director M. Salim being questioned about their alleged ties to the Artalyta bribery case.

The investigation was led by Deputy Attorney General for Internal Affairs MS Rahardjo with team members including his secretary, Halius Hussein, and supervised by AGO commission members Amir Hasan Ketaren and Puspo Aji.

Rahardjo said Untung admitted that the man's voice on the recorded conversation with Artalyta, played during her recent trial, was his.

However, Untung denied he was trying to help Artalyta escape from arrest by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Rahardjo added.

Artalyta's ongoing trial at the Corruption Court has heard testimony and tapped telephone conversations implicating top AGO prosecutors in her alleged attempts to help tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim escape justice.

Sjamsul, owner of now the defunct Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, was a suspect in the embezzlement of trillions of rupiah in Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) funds.

"Untung said that neither he nor anyone else had the ability to keep the KPK from doing its job," he added.

The KPK arrested Urip March 2 for allegedly taking a US$660,000 bribe from Artalyta, who was also detained around two hours later.

Rahardjo said the AGO had issued an arrest warrant for Artalyta and assigned several prosecutors to detain her shortly after hearing of the arrest of Urip.

The warrant was signed by Salim, he added.

Sidik Latuconsina, a prosecutor involved in Artalyta's arrest plan, said the detention was ordered by Deputy Attorney General for Intelligence Wisnu Subroto with the warrant from Salim.

"I was ordered by the deputy attorney for intelligence to get some good prosecutors to arrest Artalyta shortly after we heard Urip was caught.

"At that time, Pak Wisnu said all parties involved in the bribery case should be arrested for the sake of justice.

"To support the plan, we also called up the KPK chief to get his permission. He approved our request, but it turned out his team got Artalyta first," Sidik said.

Rahardjo said the AGO heard of the arrest from Untung. "We got the information about Urip's arrest from Untung. He then passed on the news to Wisnu."

Rahardjo refused to answer reporters' questions on who informed Untung about Urip's arrest.

Rahardjo further said the results of the investigation would be reported to Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.

The internal investigation will continue Wednesday with the questioning of former deputy attorney general for special crimes Kemas Yahya Rahman.

"We have to wait for the whole investigation and see whether the AGO resolves the problems afterward," said Mas Achmad.

"However, the main point is really to implement bureaucratic reform. (nkn)

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