For the past week, head of the Corruption Eradication Commission'€™s (KPK) legal division, 43-year-old Catharina M. Girsang, could be seen sitting confidently across from her opponents during pretrial hearings at the South Jakarta District Court.

Catharina has been at the court every day since Monday defending the antigraft body'€™s decision to name National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a graft suspect last month. She was confident in facing Budi'€™s defense team, who often gave intimidating looks to the KPK'€™s witnesses.

Though physically slight in stature, Catharina'€™s resume is impressive. Prior to joining the KPK as a prosecutor in 2005, she was a prosecutor at the Bekasi Prosecutor'€™s Office in West Java in 1999.

It would not be long before she was brought to the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) as expert staff to former attorney general Marzuki Darusman and MA Rachman.

Catharina, who graduated cum laude from Padjajaran University in Bandung with a Master'€™s degree in law, headed the monetary economy subsection of the intelligence section at the Bekasi Prosecutor'€™s Office for four years.

She was among 30 prosecutors, out of 60 who applied, invited to join the antigraft body in 2005.

At the KPK, Catharina was the head of the indictment task force before she was appointed as the KPK'€™s legal division head last year.

During her 10 year tenure at the KPK, Catharina was also involved in indicting several high-profile cases, including a case involving former Medan mayor Abdillah, who was sentenced  to five years in prison in 2008 for embezzling funds meant for fire trucks.

She was also on the prosecution team that handled former North Sumatra governor Syamsul Arifin'€™s graft case. Syamsul was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and fined Rp 150 million (US$11,733) in 2011 for his role in the misuse of the Langkat administration budget.

Catharina'€™s presence is always evident in court. Wearing a simple green batik dress on Friday, she spoke in a firm and steady tone as she questioned witnesses. Although the pretrial hearings have been running continuously for a week, her gestures never showed signs of weariness.

More often than not, her calm demeanor was a stark contrast to that of Budi'€™s lawyers, who frequently raised their voices in court to question or protest hearing proceedings.

She remained dignified even when bombarded with questions from the media during the hearing'€™s short breaks. She kept her eyes on the cameras and confirmed there was no doubt that the KPK'€™s legal team was going to win against Budi'€™s team in the pretrial hearing.

'€œI am confident we will win the pretrial. We have presented our witnesses and we have a strong case against the other team. There is no evidence that can prove that there was foul play when the KPK named Budi Gunawan a suspect,'€ she said.

Catharina was confident that she would remain safe despite the KPK'€™s claims that death threats had been sent to a number of KPK investigators and staff members mainly because she had been assigned bodyguards.

When asked about how long she would dedicate her life to the KPK, Catharina admitted that fighting corruption was one of her passions and that she would commit herself for as long as she could.

'€œOf course I am passionate about the work I do, it takes passion to keep doing it for so long. I worked for many years as a prosecutor specializing in corruption eradication and now I'€™m glad I can continue to do the same kind of work at the KPK '€ she said with a smile.

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