T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Tuesday that it would launch a probe against Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Fahri Hamzah, a fierce critic of the antigraft body, for allegedly receiving money from graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin.

Commission spokesman Johan Budi said the KPK would question Fahri to verify a court statement by Yulianis, former deputy finance director of PT Permai Group, a company jointly owned by former Democratic Party treasurer Nazaruddin and disgraced former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, that Fahri had received US$25,000 from the firm.

'€œWe will follow up on the statement from Yulianis. It is a strong evidence, as she was under oath when making the statement. If KPK investigators find enough evidence to confirm the claim then we will launch a new investigation,'€ Johan told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Anas has been accused of taking billions of rupiah in dirty money from the Permai Group to support his successful chairmanship campaign during the Democratic Party congress in 2010 in Bandung.

Johan did not give details on when KPK investigators would launch the probe against Fahri.

Nazaruddin accepted about Rp 800 billion (US$ 86.50 million) through the Permai Group every year for rigging state projects, thanks to his extensive power as the ruling Democratic Party treasurer and member of the House of Representatives.

During Anas'€™ trial on Monday, Yulianis said that she handed the $25,000 to Fahri at the Permai Group headquarters in Jakarta, adding that the money was to pay a down payment on a car ordered by Fahri.

'€œJust write down on the company'€™s financial book that the money was for a car down payment. It was not related to the arrangement of the state projects budget deliberations [at the House of Representatives],'€ Yulianis said in court, quoting Nazaruddin'€™s instructions to her.

Yulianis said that Fahri did not say a word when she handed the money to him.

'€œWhen I ask him [Fahri] to sign the receipt [for the money] he just smiled at me. It was Pak Nazaruddin who later got the receipt and signed it himself,'€ Yulianis said. Yulianis did not elaborate on why Nazaruddin was being generous to Fahri.

Fahri, who has been known for his incendiary statements, shrugged off the accusation on Tuesday, saying that he never had business with either Nazaruddin or Yulianis.

'€œI will let Nazaruddin and Yulianis give clarification about my presence at the Permai Group office. I have never been there and I don'€™t know the location,'€ Fahri said.

The PKS politician said that he would not file a complaint with the police against his accusers for defamation.

'€œI won'€™t put more burden on them because they are all in a difficult situation, especially my friend Anas. I always pray for the best for him in looking for justice in his case,'€ Fahri said.

Fahri made headlines in 2011 for launching an unsuccessful campaign to dissolve the antigraft body, claiming that he had dug up the '€œKPK'€™s dirty secrets'€ to support his arguments.

In May 2013 Fahri reported the KPK to the National Police following the antigraft body'€™s move to confiscate luxury cars belonging to money laundering convict, former PKS chairman Lutfhi Hasan Ishaaq, insisting that the confiscation was not based on '€œproper'€ procedure.