Two suspended deputy chiefs from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) must now report to the police twice a week.

Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah were named suspects for an alleged abuse of power when they issued a travel ban on Anggoro Widjojo and Djoko S. Tjandra, who are both corruption suspects.

Bibit and Chandra were forbidden from leaving town after the police named them as suspects two weeks ago.

"We will have to report again later," said Bibit after reporting to the police yesterday.

National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri announced last week that the two KPK chiefs had been charged with bribery as well, based on a report made by suspended KPK chief Antasari Azhar, who is in police detention on murder charges.

Police said the report was supported by testimony from Ary Muladi, now being detained by the police for alleged extortion and fraud.

Ary has been accused for impersonating a KPK agent and demanding Rp 5.1 billion (US$510,000) from Anggoro as a payoff to halt a graft investigation implicating Anggoro's company, PT Masaro Radiokom.

Antasari later denied the statement, saying police had ordered him to make the report. Ary said through his lawyer, Sugeng Teguh Santoso, that he had never met with KPK leaders, let alone handed over a bribe.

Ary instead said that he handed over the Rp 5.1 billion to a businessman, who claimed to be able to lobby KPK leaders to cease investigating Anggoro's case.

The police, declaring Bibit and Chandra as suspects, face public criticism for the apparent lack of evidence to support their case, and alleged abuse of power.

"It would be better for the President to ask the police to expose the case, because we're starting to doubt whether they have strong grounds for declaring the two KPK deputies as suspects," said a professor of state administration law at the University of Indonesia, Hikmahanto Juwana.

He was addressing a Monday discussion on saving the KPK, considered among the main institutions in the country's fight against a legacy of corruption.

Hikmahanto also said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was wrong to issue a regulation-in-lieu-of-law allowing him to replace the suspended KPK leaders because the decision should have been made through a selection process by the House of Representatives.

"What is so urgent about the current situation that made him decide to issue the regulation?" he asked. "The KPK Law itself does not require a minimum number of KPK deputy chairmen to be able to operate.

"The regulation will only interfere in the KPK's independency."

Zainal Arifin Mochtar from the Gadjah Mada University's Center for AntiCorruption Studies (Pukat), also said the regulation worsened the situation.

"Why doesn't the President try to understand the issue first, before taking action?" he said, referring to the Bank Century scandal that reportedly involves National Police detective chief Comr. Gen Susno Duadji.

There has been suspicion that the KPK wiretapped Susno when he asked for a bribe related to the Bank Century-Antaboga scandal.

Susno denied the allegations, saying he deliberately misled those who bugged him.

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