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Politicians deny threatening Miryam into making confession
Members of the House of Representatives have denied allegations that they threatened Hanura Party politician Miryam S. Haryanti to influence her March 22 testimony during the trial of a graft case involving e-ID cards.
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Suspected: Former House of Representatives member Miryam S. Haryani leaves the Jakarta Corruption Court after she attended the third hearing of the e-ID graft case trial on March 30. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
Members of the House of Representatives have denied allegations that they threatened Hanura Party politician Miryam S. Haryanti to influence her March 22 testimony during the trial of a graft case involving e-ID cards.
“I was surprised that Miryam said such a thing [on March 23 when she recanted her testimony and told the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) that she had been threatened into denying she knew anything about the case]. I have never been on even one commission with her. If she cannot prove what she has said, she has committed a crime,” Golkar Party politician Aziz Syamsuddin said on Thursday.
(Read also: Witness met with Setya’s lawyer before renouncing statements)
Aziz is one of five House members reported to have pushed Miryam into making statements in favor of them. Other lawmakers are Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party, Masinton Pasaribu of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Saifuddin Sudding of the Hanura Party and Desmond J. Mahesa of the Gerindra Party.
Masinton also denied the allegation. “I am in a different commission with her. I only met her during plenary sessions. I don’t really know her. Each time I met her I just said ‘Hello’. That's all.”
Sudding claimed he did not understand why Miryam mentioned his name. He denied he had discussed the project with her.
“I really have no idea why she mentioned my name. I never talked about the e-ID project. This project was supposed to be in the hands of Commission II, not Commission III.”
In a hearing of the e-ID case trial on Thursday, KPK investigator Novel Baswedan said Miryam had told him that those five politicians had threatened her so she would not report to the KPK that she and several other politicians had improperly received money from the Rp 5.9 trillion (US$440 million) project. (ebf)
