T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) denied on Wednesday an allegation that it had wiretapped a conversation between Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri and Attorney General Basrief Arief concerning a graft case involving the procurement of Transjakarta buses.

The alleged conversation in question centers on Megawati'€™s supposed request that the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO), which is handling the graft case, not implicate PDI-P presidential candidate and non-active Jakarta governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo in the case.

The procurement of Transjakarta buses worth Rp 1.5 trillion (US$125 million) was initiated by the Jakarta city administration.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that the KPK never eavesdropped on conversation of individuals not related to graft cases it was handling.

'€œIt is not true that the KPK has a wiretapped conversation of the attorney general or other parties. We never intercept conversations of those who have no relation to graft cases being handled by the KPK,'€ Johan said on Wednesday.

In relation to the Transjakarta graft case, the AGO initially declared Drajat Adhyaksa, who was the authority on the budget use, and the head of the bus procurement committee, Setyo Tuhu, suspects. Both are senior officials at the Jakarta Transportation Agency.

Later, the AGO named two more suspects '€” former Jakarta Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono and Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology'€™s (BPPT) director of transportation systems and technology center
Prawoto.

A group of activists known as Progress 98 staged on Wednesday a protest in front of the AGO headquarters to demand clarification about a leaked document containing the alleged transcript of a bugged conversation between the attorney general and someone who it identified as '€œthe number one person in the PDI-P'€.

'€œToday we delivered a letter to the AGO requesting clarification on the leaked transcript of a conversation between a PDI-P executive and the attorney general,'€ Progress 98 chairman Faizal Assegaf said.

Faizal said that he acquired the transcript of the wiretapped conversation from a confidant of a KPK senior commissioner on June 6.

Responding to the allegation, KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said it was not possible for the transcript to be traced to any KPK leader.

'€œThe KPK works according to the law. In our system we always make sure that no information acquired from intercepted conversations is leaked to those who have no authority,'€ Bambang said.

PDI-P'€™s legal division head, Trimedya Panjaitan, said the party would take legal action regarding the leaked conversation.

'€œWe have to deal with this. This is a head-to-head fight. We saw this coming and are preparing a legal measure,'€ Trimedya told reporters.

Trimedya also expressed doubt that the two people heard in the conversation were Megawati and Basrief.

'€œPak Basrief Arief is a dyed-in-the-wool bureaucrat. There'€™s no way he would put himself at risk by having such a conversation,'€ he said.