Legislators to grill police chief, AG

Legislators will ask National Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji for an explanation about their inconsistent statements on the existence of tape recordings in an ongoing corruption trial.

The police had previously insisted they were in possession of these recordings but recently claimed that they only had “call data records” between bribery suspect Ary Mulyadi and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)’s deputy for enforcement Ade Rahardja.

As a consequence, they are now facing accusations from the public that they lied about having tape recordings of alleged conversations between Ary and Ade.

The call-data records, which now have “replaced” the mysterious recordings as key evidence, are expected to be substantial to solving a high-profile graft case involving two top KPK officials Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit S. Rianto.

Legislator Tjatur Sapto Edi, a member of the House of Representatives’ Commission III on legal affairs, said Tuesday that the commission next week would hold a legislative hearing in which Bambang and Hendarman would be asked to clarify the matter.

“Their inconsistency has caused a stir in the media and among the public. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that the police chief reportedly went ‘missing’ on Friday and failed to clarify his changing statements on the tape recordings,” Tjatur told The Jakarta Post.

Tjatur said the hearing would also question the internal coordination within the police institution, which he deemed was weak.

“The fact that the police force has released inconsistent statements, and that none of Bambang’s subordinates could explain his mysterious disappearance Friday, have indicated their non-professionalism.”

Last Friday, the police chief canceled his appearance at the inauguration of a number of high-ranking officials without notice. A spokesperson for the police said Bambang had to delay the ceremony due to an urgent meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Another said he was ill. Explanations were not clarified as Bambang was reportedly absent at the meeting and made no public announcement about his illness, despite public pressure.

On Monday, Bambang clarified that his absence on Friday was because of “unavoidable circumstances”, but refused to further elaborate.

Regarding the Attorney General’s Office, Tjatur, also a politician from the National Mandate Party, said: “The AGO has to explain to us its basis on which to issue the case file of Bibit and Chandra, considering the fact that they knew the wiretapped recordings had never existed in the first place.”

On Tuesday, Attorney General Hendarman denied he had previously claimed that the wiretapped recordings existed. “I never referred to such tapes as ‘voice’ recordings. What actually exists are the ‘call data records’,” Hendarman said as quoted by Antara.

Also Tuesday, the police issued another contradictory statement with regards to the “call data records”, saying the records contained only traffic calls, and numbers and durations of calls, between Ary and “someone,” in lieu of between Ary and Ade, which they had previously claimed. The police, however, refused to detail the identity of the “someone”. (tsy)