The government’s plan to issue a regulation on intercepting wiretapping did not apply to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), since it had stronger powers, Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD said Wednesday.
“The KPK does not have to obey the regulation because its authority is legalized by the 2002 KPK Law, which is on a higher regulatory level,” Mahfud said.
Mahfud said the law protected interception authority. He said the regulation could only rule a law article, not interception authority that was given to legal institutions.
“The regulation will likely breach the law if it regulates all interception systems,” he said.
The interception authorities were given to all legal institutions, including the KPK (regulated in the 2002 KPK Law), the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and the National Police, regulated in the 1997 Law on Narcotics and Psychotropic and the 2003 Law on Eradicating Terrorism.
“The government regulation will be out of line with the Constitution if it regulates all interception articles,” Mahfud said.
The government’s plan to issue a regulation on wiretapping interception has caused controversy, since it requires the commission and other law enforcement institutions to gain permission from the Central Jakarta District Court before wiretapping public officials believed to be involved in corrupt practice.
A draft bill on the regulation also mandates the establishment of a national center for interception that has the authority to regulate wiretapping procedures and requirements for legal institutions to communicate the information they need from wiretapping.
The bill issue emerged only weeks after the Constitutional Court played Nov. 3 a wiretapped recording between fugitive corruption suspect Anggoro Widjojo’s younger brother, Anggodo Widjojo, with several high-ranking law enforcers.
The recordings were played in connection with fabricated charges against KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.
Concerns have emerged that the draft bill will constitute a way to limit KPK authority in fighting corruption, since the KPK law gives the commission full authority to wiretap corruption cases.
After a meeting Wednesday at the KPK building, Information and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring denied that the interception regulation would limit KPK authority.
“We want a stronger legal umbrella to help eradicate corruption,” he said.
He promised to make notes on certain articles of the draft bill.
“We still have until April 2010 to discuss the draft,” Tifatul said.
