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orruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner Indriyanto Seno Adji lambasted judge Haswandi for issuing a ruling that contradicted his own earlier decisions on two major graft cases handled by the KPK.

Indriyanto openly questioned the judge'€™s integrity because he had imprisoned two graft defendants using the KPK Law, but on Tuesday Haswandi used the same law to argue a graft case should be dropped.

'€œThis creates a sense of ambiguity on his previous rulings,'€ said Indriyanto, who is also a professor of law at the University of Indonesia.

The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng to four years in prison in July 2014, less than the 10 years sought by KPK prosecutors, after finding him guilty of abusing his power as sports minister to rig the Rp 2.5 trillion (US$190 million) Hambalang sports-complex project in West Java.  

The same court also sentenced former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum to eight years in prison in September 2014, less than the 15 years demanded by KPK prosecutors, for using Rp 2 billion from the funds meant for Hambalang to win the Democratic Party chairmanship.

Haswandi was the presiding judge in both trials.

In his controversial pretrial ruling on Tuesday, Haswandi ordered the KPK to free former tax director general and Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chief Hadi Purnomo, who was involved in a high-profile tax case connected to Bank Central Asia (BCA), which caused more than Rp 2 trillion in state losses.

The chief of the notorious South Jakarta District Court also ruled that the KPK'€™s 12-year practice of naming suspects at the end of a preliminary investigation phase rather than at the beginning was illegitimate. Furthermore, he claimed that the status of independent KPK investigators was also illegitimate.

The KPK however insisted that it would not stop its investigations into the BCA case. In addition, it claimed its independent investigators '€” coming from a number of institutions aside from the National Police, including the BPK and the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) '€” who were all illegitimate according to Haswandi, would resume business as usual, disregarding the controversial ruling.

Indriyanto said the KPK'€™s independent investigators had solved 371 cases that were supported by the Supreme Court (MA), which trumped Haswandi'€™s ruling.

'€œAdditionally, the fact that the solved cases have been confirmed by the Supreme Court has made the ruling debatable. From that perspective, they should continue investigating graft cases as per usual,'€ Indriyanto said.

Indriyanto also said the KPK would continue with the same investigation model, justified under Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK, despite Haswandi'€™s order to instead complying with the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), which states that someone should be named a suspect during the preliminary investigation phase.

'€œThe KPK Law is built on the regulation [the KUHAP],'€ Indriyanto said, adding that there was no reason for the KPK to not obey its own law, which also grants authority to the KPK to hire independent investigators.

Contacted separately, MA spokesman Suhadi called on the KPK to respect Haswandi'€™s ruling despite its '€œperceived'€ controversy, adding that the MA would study Haswandi'€™s ruling before deciding whether to establish guidelines for pretrial judges.