Observers said the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) had to act quickly in deciding what way to drop the criminal cases against two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen as apparently intended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s speech on Monday.

They also said that if the cases are dropped, then Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah should be reinstalled immediately as KPK deputy chairmen.

Transparency International Indonesia secretary-general Teten Masduki told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that both Chandra and Bibit should have their names cleared should the AGO decide to drop the case against them.

He warned the AGO to stop buying time and get on and issue the  official letter to stop the prosecution  (SKPP) on Chandra and Bibit.

According to Article 32 of the 2002 Law on KPK, a commission leader must be permanently dismissed if he or she fails to actively carry out their required duties for three consecutive months.

Chandra and Bibit have been officially inactive since Sept. 21, so that the final deadline on their professional status and fate falls on Dec. 21.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said Tuesday his office would implement Yudhoyono’s request not to bring the case to court.

However, he said prosecutors would need two more weeks before coming to a final decision on how to drop the case.

“I will ask four prosecutors to re-examine the case. They will be tasked to find loopholes in the case which would become our reason to drop the case later on,” he said.

The AGO has two options on how to drop the case. The first one is to issue the SKPP, while the second option is to leave it to the Attorney General to use his special right to drop the case in the public interest, known as the right of deponeering.

As a group of prosecutors would be assigned to re-examine the case, it is likely that Hendarman would take the first option.

The dossiers of Bibit and Chandra  have been in the hands of prosecutors for weeks. The dossiers have been returned to the police twice as prosecutors considered there were loopholes and had ordered the police to deal with these weaknesses.

National Police  chief spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Sukarna said the police praised Yudhoyono’s speech asking that the case should be solved within a legal framework.

“As the dossiers now are already within the AGO’s authority, we will leave it to the prosecutors to decide what to do with the them,” he said.

Hendarman’s statements, however, sparked protests from Ruhut Sitompul, a lawmaker from the House of Representatives’ Commission III overseeing law and security, who said he could not understand why it would need more time for Hendarman to halt the prosecution process.

“If the President has already told them to drop the case, then they should quickly drop the prosecution,” he was quoted by detik.com.

Another House member, Nasir Jamil, said the two-week period set by the AGO was too long.

“It takes the AGO two weeks to determine its final position on the President’s stance towards the case. That is too long,” he said.

“Besides, there is always a possibility for more fabrications within that two-week period.”

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