Ical "under attack" from Gayus rumors

Golkar Party chairman Aburizal “Ical” Bakrie says he shouldn’t be tarred by the scandals surrounding high-profile graft suspect Gayus Tambunan.

“There will be plenty of these kinds of attacks,” Ical said after his public lecture at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore on Thursday.

Connecting him to Gayus case was evidence of “bias”, Ical said as quoted by online newsportal kompas.com.

Gayus allegedly bribed his way out of the Mobile Brigade’s detention center in Depok to travel to Bali on Nov. 4-6, when he was rumored to have met Ical.

Ical said allegations were intended to distract the public from incidents such as the Bank Century bailout or the alleged shakedown of Krakatau Steel executives during the company’s recent IPO.

“This has something to do with 2014,” said Ical as quoted by kompas.com, referring to the Indonesia’s next presidential election.

Ical said he did not know who was behind the allegations and regretted unbalanced media coverage that has led to negative speculation.