Attorney General M. Prasetyo has dropped the cases of former leaders of antigraft commission, Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjajanto as a way of keeping the country's anticorruption spirit alive.

Prasetyo said the 2004 Law on the Attorney General's Office (AGO) allowed him to drop cases.  AGO issued a deponering, a legal mechanism to cease a prosecution, on the case of the former chairman and deputy chairman of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday.

"So the cases are closed, ended," he said in a press conference on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.

The decision was made following the AGO's concerns that the two cases would be counterproductive to the government's fight against corruption.

Another consideration, Prasetyo added, was that Abraham and Bambang were known as anticorruption icons.

"Both AS [Abraham} and BW [Bambang] are known widely as figures who have commited to eradicating corruption," he said adding that it was one of the reasons the prosecutions of the two graft busters were criticized by public.

Former KPK chairman Abraham was named a suspect by the National Police in an alleged document fraud case, while Bambang was charged with perjury relating to a local election dispute at the Constitution Court when he was working as a lawyer.

Public suspicions over the criminalizations of Abraham and Bambang rose following the suspect statuses given to them by the National Police after the KPK named then National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen Budi Gunawan a corruption suspect. (rin)(+)

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