Free at last: Suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies Chandra M
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The public Tuesday was glued to televisions and radios, listening to a live recording of wiretapped conversations featuring high ranking law enforcers believed to be key players in a corruption saga.
It was the first time the public has heard such a recording from the Constitutional Court, which had decided on Monday that the hearings should be open to the public.
The court had a full house but multitudes followed the proceedings from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in their offices, homes, markets and stations. The recordings belong to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which taped the conversations as part of their investigations into a corruption case.
“Lots of figures will be caught from this recording,” a vendor at the Cikini station in Central Jakarta said. “The President should help to speed up the resolving of the case.”
Although parts of the recordings have been leaked to the public, people could hear with their own ears the familiarity, coaxing, agitation – and a triumphant laugh — exchanged between a central figure in the recordings, businessman Anggodo Widjojo, with persons among others believed to be officials of the Attorney General’s Office.
There's also a mysterious woman, identified as Yuliana, who mentions the President's "support" and a deputy attorney general. Later in a TV interview she is referred to as an alternative therapist by Anggodo.
Listeners got confirmation that “RI-1”, a reference to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was mentioned more than once in the recordings, which also mentioned funds of Rp 3.75 billion (about US$395,000), supposedly available for bribery purposes.
The Court Chief Mahfud M.D. had said the recordings were needed in the judicial review of the law on the antigraft body.
The detained KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, who were released past midnight, had filed a request for a judicial review of the articles regarding dismissal of KPK leaders once they are declared defendants in a legal case. In the event the recordings revealed a plot against the KPK leaders, this would prove the respective articles in the KPK law were prone to abuse.
In one part Anggodo is talking to a man believed to be Wisnu Subroto, deputy attorney general for intelligence, on a bribery case involving KPK leaders. Police suspected them of receiving bribes from Anggodo's brother, Anggoro Widjojo, who the KPK was investigating.
Anggodo mentions an "order" for KPK chief Antasari Azhar "to confess" about Chandra being bribed by Anggodo, in a bid to drop his brother's case. "But no confession was made; so who is supposed to confess?" Anggodo says.
Anggodo tells the person believed to be Wisnu, “I want him to [order] the handover [of money] to Chandra, because if no one ordered Chandra pak, there is no connection.”
One conversation apparently followed the detention of the deputies last week. Anggodo is heard saying, "Turns out Truno-3 has a high commitment to me." Truno-3 is believed to refer to the chief detective at the National Police headquarters, Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji.
Anggodo also tells an unidentified man that the police dossier on his brother's case should be seen as if alleged brokers and the KPK "are in one syndicate wanting to extort us."
Anggoro is commissioner of PT Masaro Radiokom, the contractor for the radio communications system
at the Forestry Ministry. The firm is implicated in bribery of the ministry.
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