An expert has said that moves by several House of Representatives ethics council members to continue to call into a question the validity of a transcript and audio recording of an alleged conversation between House Speaker Setya Novanto, oil businessman Riza Chalid and gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin is no longer relevant and could be a ruse to stall the hearing of an ethics violation allegedly involving the Golkar Party politician.

Center for Policy and Law Studies (PSHK) researcher Ronal Rofiandri said matters related to the validity of evidence in the alleged misuse of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo's and Vice President Jusuf Kalla's names in the case, which was reported by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said to the council, should have been thoroughly discussed during the examination of the case.

'€œCalling into question again either the position of Sudirman as the reporter of the case or the validity of evidence in his report is no longer relevant and aimed at only stalling the start of the hearing,'€ he said as quoted by kompas.com in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Ronald said that based on Article 143 of the 2014 Legislative Institution (MD3) Law, the validity of evidence was part of the examination of a report submitted to the House ethics council. Thus, the activist said, the council should now focus on the organizing of an open hearing of the case and schedule the summons of parties related to the case.

Citing  articles 133 (1) and 134 of the MD3 Law, Ronald said, ethics council leaders should have scheduled the first day of the hearing, in which the complainant would explain core problems reported to the council. On the second day, the defendant would have a chance to respond to the report.

'€œHouse ethics council leaders must immediately determine the schedule and examination plan of the Setya case based on the MD3 Law and House Regulation No.2/2015 on hearing procedure at the House ethics council,'€ said Ronal.

'€œThe leaders must make their decision collectively and collegially in line with Article 121 (1) of the MD3 Law,'€ he went on.

In a plenary meeting on Monday, several ethics council members again called into question the validity of the audio recording of the alleged conversation between Setya, Riza and Maroef.

Earlier, the problem of the validity of the audio recording was considered completely resolved after the House ethics council consulted with National Police chief Gen.Badrodin Haiti.

In the meeting, Badrodin asserted that there was no need to examine the validity of the recording at the police'€™s forensic laboratory because the parties involved in the conversation had all admitted to conversing.

In Monday'€™s meeting, however, several ethics council members claimed that parties related to the recording had not acknowledged the validity of the recording. (ebf)(+)

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