The scandal has generated public sympathy for the anti-corruption body. At the same time, however, the KPK has been questioned about its downward performance last year.

In their indictment, KPK prosecutors said Ary was involved in a conspiracy to commit corruption by giving gratuities to state officials.

“He conspired with Anggodo Widjojo in an attempt to obstruct a KPK investigation into a 2007
graft case at communication company PT Masaro Radiokom, which belongs to Anggodo’s brother, fugitive Anggoro Widjojo,” prosecutor Suwarji said.

The offense could see him sentenced to life in prison, as stipulated by the 1999 Anti-Corruption Law.
The indictment alleges Ary attempted to bribe KPK officials Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah with Rp 5.1 billion (US$566,666) in exchange for having them halt their investigation into Anggoro’s case.

KPK detained Ary on Dec. 10, 2010 after naming him a suspect in July.

The indictment also alleges Ary fabricated a note on the chronology of the case to be used as information in the police dossier.

The chronology indicates the two KPK leaders had tried to extort Anggodo. “We believed Ary has been guilty of obstruction of justice,” Suwarji said.

However, under the same charge the court found Anggodo not guilty of obstruction of justice for filing false charges with the police against Bibit and Chandra.

After the trial, Ary’s lawyer, Sugeng Teguh Santoso, told The Jakarta Post that his team would file a demurrer over the “unfair” count.

“The indictment uses the ‘collective crime’ charge. So, if they failed to prove the crime against Anggodo, our client is supposed to be not guilty as well,” Sugeng said.

He asserted that it would be different if the case against his client was separate from Anggodo’s case, saying that if so Ary would not object to facing trial.

The attorney lamented that the Supreme Court had not yet decided whether to uphold or reject the KPK’s appeal against the court’s verdict that cleared Anggodo of the obstruction of justice charge.

“So, we don’t know where to bring the case. I hope the Supreme Court overrules the appeal and sets Anggodo free from the charge,” Sugeng said.

The KPK team of prosecutors handling Anggodo’s case filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in December last year. The court has not yet delivered its ruling.

In addition, Sugeng claimed that his client’s offense and Anggodo’s were different. “Ary has withdrawn all his false testimonies on the police dossier.”

He added that his client did not report the two KPK leaders to the police.

“Don’t forget that it was Ary who revealed the plot to criminalize Bibit and Chandra. We will file a demurrer for this case, which includes those facts, at the next trial session on Monday,” he said.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) had dropped the case against Bibit and Chandra for the sake of public interest, though it denied speculation that the criminal case against the pair was fabricated.   

Attorney General Basrief Arief invoked the Dutch-inspired legal principle of deponering to drop the case against the pair after Anggodo won a civil lawsuit against the AGO’s decision to halt the KPK probe for “sociological reason” following public outcry over its move to incriminate the pair.

University of Indonesia criminal law expert Rudy Satrio said that building Ary’s case on the same charge for which Anggodo was acquitted was legitimate.

He added, however, that any legal expert would predict that Ary will be cleared from the charges.

“As for the appeal, it means that the ruling is not yet final and binding. So, it will depend on the judges at the Corruption Court whether to build a case using the same charge or not,” he said.

— JP/Ina Parlina

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