The South Jakarta District Court issued a ruling on Tuesday that threatens to nullify all graft cases prosecuted by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) since the antigraft body'€™s founding in 2004.

In a pretrial hearing for former director general for taxation and Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman and graft suspect Hadi Purnomo, Haswandi, the sole judge at the court, considered that because '€œindependent investigators'€ had been used by the KPK to probe Hadi'€™s role in a graft case involving the country'€™s largest lender, Bank Central Asia (BCA), the investigation was illegal.

In his decision, Haswandi claimed Hadi'€™s case had been handled by independent investigators hired by the KPK who had resigned from positions with institutions such as the National Police and the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO). He argued that graft investigators could only lawfully carry out investigations if they continued to serve at their respective institutions.

The ruling throws into question the 371 KPK-prosecuted graft cases confirmed by the Supreme Court, because as was the case with the probe into Hadi, the cases were handled by investigators who had resigned from their institutions. The verdict also opens the door for hundreds of graft convicts to appeal their cases with the Supreme Court.

In the ruling, Haswandi stated the KPK'€™s 12-year practice of naming an individual a suspect at the end of a preliminary investigation phase was illegitimate, as such a move must occur during a primary investigation phase, as occurs in cases handled by the police. The ruling, meanwhile, said nothing about the evidence against Hadi, who is suspected of unilaterally approving BCA'€™s request for income-tax leniency while serving as director general for taxation between 2002 and 2004, a decision the KPK said had triggered more than Rp 2 trillion in state losses.

'€œAny investigation into the plaintiff [Hadi] was illegitimate, including the KPK'€™s move to conduct raids and confiscate [his assets],'€ Haswandi said in court.

Acting KPK chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki swiftly condemned the ruling, lambasting the judge for ruling beyond what Hadi had requested in his pretrial claim.

'€œThe plaintiff only wanted the court to declare that the KPK'€™s investigation was illegitimate, but the judge further moved to order the KPK to stop investigating him in the case, a move that will violate the KPK'€™s own law which stipulates that we can'€™t stop any investigation,'€ Ruki said.

Ruki further added that deciding whether the KPK was allowed to hire independent investigators was a matter for the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN), and could not be adjudicated at a pretrial hearing.

The KPK chairman said the KPK would not comply with the controversial ruling and would ramp up its investigation into Hadi.

'€œKPK leaders have reached the conclusion that this pretrial ruling is a systematic attempt to undermine the KPK'€™s effort to eradicate corruption in the country. We will exhaust all legal avenues to challenge the ruling, which has created chaos in the law-enforcement system,'€ Ruki said.

The KPK said it would consider filing a report against Haswandi with the Judicial Commission (KY) and the Supreme Court.

Tuesday'€™s ruling is the latest in a series of efforts to undermine the KPK, which emerged bruised and battered from its scuffle with the National Police following the antigraft body'€™s move to name Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, now the National Police deputy chief, a suspect in a bribery case in January.

In February, the South Jakarta District Court ordered the KPK to halt its probe into Budi, catalyzing a rash of pretrial hearing petitions.

In response to a public outcry over the Budi decision, the court rejected pretrial petitions filed by a number of graft suspects, claiming a pretrial court had no authority to examine a person'€™s suspect status.

However, on April 28, the Constitutional Court moved to revise the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) by inserting an article authorizing lower courts across the country to proceed with pretrial petitions that challenge suspect-statuses handed down by law enforcement agencies.

The Constitutional Court (MK) made the ruling in response to a judicial review request from PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia official and graft convict Bachtiar Abdul Fatah.

Following the MK ruling, the South Jakarta District Court ordered the KPK to halt its probe into former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin.

Tuesday'€™s pretrial ruling came just days after the KPK grilled BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja for 11 hours as a witness in Hadi'€™s graft case.