Police probing middleman despite release of Bibit, Chandra

A decision by the Attorney General’s Office to drop the graft cases against two leaders of the Corruption Eradictaion Commission (KPK), Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah, does not set Ari Muladi, an alleged middleman in the case, free as well.

The National Police said here Wednesday they would continue investigating Ari, a suspect in the case.

“We are still working on the case and are not planning to issue any letters to drop our investigation into this particular case,” Brig. Gen. Yovianes Mahar, director of the anti-corruption desk at the National Police headquarters, told The Jakarta Post Wednesday.

He said the police would immediately submit Ari’s dossiers to the prosecutors as they had finished gathering evidence.

Ari was a close friend of Anggodo Widjojo, the younger brother of Anggoro Widjojo, a fugitive in a graft case investigated by the KPK.

According to Anggodo, Anggoro gave Rp 5.1 billion (US$540,0000) to Ari, who was supposed to pass it on to the KPK leaders so that his brother’s case would be dropped.

Ari, however, denied he ever met Chandra or Bibit let alone gave them money. Instead, he said, he gave the money to Yulianto, who is now on the run.  

The police named Ari a suspect because if he did not give the money to Bibit and Chandra then he must have taken the money for himself.