T

he Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) announced on Tuesday that it would withdraw a prosecutor it had assigned to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Yudi Kristiana, who is currently handling two graft cases involving two former Nasdem executives.

Yudi, who is one the KPK'€™s best prosecutors, was seconded from the AGO and has handled some high profile graft cases, including the Bank Century and Bank Central Asia (BCA) scandals. He is currently working on the trial of the NasDem Party'€™s former secretary-general, Rio Capella, and of the party'€™s senior politician and prominent lawyer, OC Kaligis.

AGO spokesman Amir Yanto confirmed that Yudi had returned to his old institution and said it was because of a '€œpromotion to a higher post at the AGO'€.

Amir said that the '€œpromotion'€ had nothing to do with his current prosecution of two Nasdem politicians at the Jakarta Corruption Court.

'€œThis is a promotion to an echelon III job as he was assigned as the head of the AGO'€™s training center. This promotion is for the sake of the institution and it is good for Pak Yudi as well,'€ Amir said on Tuesday.

The current Attorney General M. Prasetyo is a former NasDem politician.

The cases against Rio and Kaligis have also involved NasDem chairman Surya Paloh, the media magnate who runs the MetroTV news channel and the Media Indonesia daily newspaper.

Rio'€™s trial on Monday also revealed a scheme to bribe Prasetyo to halt a graft case implicating suspended North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho currently handled by the AGO. A witness claimed on Monday that Gatot'€™s wife, Evi Susanti had set aside US$20,000 for Prasetyo.

Prasetyo has maintained his innocence in the case.

Rio stands accused of receiving a Rp 200 million bribe from Gatot for his service as an intermediary between the governor and Prasetyo.

So far, the KPK has not yet been able to summon Prasetyo.

Separately, KPK spokesman Yuyuk Indriyati said on Tuesday that she was surprised to learn of the AGO'€™s move, given that Yudi had renewed his contract with the antigraft body in September for another four-year term.

'€œA prosecutor at the KPK has a four-year contract and it is renewable for another term. As soon as the two terms are completed, a prosecutor still has the right to have another short two-year extension. Yudi extended his second contract three months ago,'€ Yuyuk said.

Yuyuk warned the AGO against withdrawing Yudi until his contract expired in 2019.

As a KPK prosecutor, Yudi managed to build a strong case against former Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Budi Mulya, who was sentenced to 10 years for offenses connected to the Bank Century scandal in 2014.

Yudi also led a KPK prosecution team that brought charges against former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum. The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced him to seven years in 2014 as a result of corruption and money laundering cases.