A plan from the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) to stop criminal cases involving two former commissioners of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) '€“ Bambang Widjojanto and Abraham Samad '€“ has been rejected by the House of Representatives.

Ten factions in the House'€™s Commission III overseeing legal and human rights issues expressed their opposition to the AGO'€™s move, known as deponering, in a meeting on Wednesday, commission chairman Bambang Soesatyo said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The lawmaker said the commission on Wednesday afternoon received a letter from the AGO, requesting suggestions related to the AGO's plan on the deponering of Bambang Widjojanto and Samad's cases. "Commission III sees there is no public interest in the deponering move," Bambang Soesatyo said after a meeting at the House building.

He, however, said the AGO did not need approval from the House of Representatives to make such a decision. He referred to Article 35, paragraph c of Law No. 16/2004 on the Attorney General's Office (AGO), which stipulates that the attorney general has the authority to drop a case if it is in the public interest to do so.

The commission, however, believed the case did not meet the requirements of public interest as stated in the law, Bambang Soesatyo said, adding that Abraham and Bambang Widjojanto's cases were different to previous cases involving former KPK commissioners Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah because when the AGO issued the deponering, they were still KPK commissioners.

"If there was no action taken toward the Bibit and Chandra cases, their performance as KPK commissioners would have been affected. Meanwhile, Abraham and Bambang are no longer KPK commissioners," Bambang Soesatyo said.

Bambang Widjojanto was accused of demanding a witness falsify testimony in a regional election dispute case in 2010 in Central Kalimantan, while Abraham was accused of falsifying the identity of a female friend.

The police named them suspects after the KPK named Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a graft suspect soon after the House approved his nomination by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo as a National Police chief candidate early last year.

Therefore, corruption activists considered the naming of both people as suspects as criminalization and claimed it was revenge from the National Police. Previously, the police also named a noted KPK investigator, Novel Baswedan, as a suspect in a murder carried out by his subordinate when he was still a local police chief in Bengkulu.

In connection with the cases, President Jokowi summoned Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo and National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti on Feb. 2 for a discussion. The President ordered the two to find a way to end the cases immediately because they had sparked public controversy. (bbn)(+)

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