The South Jakarta District Court issued a verdict on Monday retracting the letter of order to stop the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) prosecution of a bribery case involving the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen as requested by plaintiff Anggodo Widjojo.
The verdict surprised many since Anggodo — whose recorded conversation revealed an alleged attempt to frame KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah — is charged with article 15 of the corruption law, concerning conspiracy to commit graft; and article 21 on attempts to hinder investigations into graft cases.
Anggodo is accused of attempting to bribe Chandra and Bibit in hopes of stopping the KPK’s corruption investigation into his brother Anggoro Widjojo, who is believed to have fled to Singapore, for allegedly being involved in illegal procurement of radio and communications equipment at the Forestry Ministry in 2007.
The verdict is seen as a threat to the KPK.
“The ruling jeopardizes the KPK. I’m afraid the commission is facing another ‘counter attack’ like it experienced during the Bibit-Chandra case,” said Teten Masduki, secretary-general of the Transparency International Indonesia (TII).
Presiding judge Nugroho Setyadi ruled in favor of Anggodo, saying: “...the prosecution must go on and [the Bibit and Chandra] case must be brought to the court.”
The verdict will likely leave the KPK to be chaired by only two deputy chairmen, namely M. Jasin and Haryono Umar. Former chief Antasari Azhar was sentenced to 18 years for masterminding the murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen.
“As a consequence [of the ruling], the KPK will face hard times to deal with big cases they are probing now,” Teten said.
“This is another counter-attack from corruptors, as happened in the past. I’m afraid the court ruling was a form of intervention to undermine the KPK,” he added.
Bibit responded to the ruling by saying that he hoped the AGO would file an appeal. “The point is that the bribery accusation against me and Pak Chandra was fabricated. The taped conversation played in the Constitutional Court last November explained that,” he said.
AGO spokesman Didiek Darmanto said the prosecutors would file an appeal with the Jakarta High Court within 14 days. “Our position stays the same. We think the issuance of the letter to stop the prosecutions was correct,” he told the press.
Rudy Satriyo, a law expert from the University of Indonesia, said the issuance of the letter to stop the prosecution was correct and therefore the court’s ruling to retract it was not relevant.
Teten feared there was an effort from parties to prevent the KPK from continuing its investigation on the traveler’s checks bribery case.
The case took place in the 2004 election of Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor. Documents indicate many legislators, including prominent names, received the bribes but the KPK has only named four of them as suspects in the case.
