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Witness met with Setya’s lawyer before renouncing statements
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Under investigation: The Jakarta Corruption Court's judge panel confronts Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators Novel Baswedan (right), Ambarita Damanik (second right) and M. Irwan Santoso (second left) with House of Representatives member Miryam S. Haryani (left) in the third e-ID graft case hearing on March 30. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
T
he e-ID graft hearing on Thursday revealed that former House of Representatives member Miryam S. Haryani had met with lawyers representing House Speaker Setya Novanto and former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin before she testified as a witness in a previous hearing on March 22.
Miryam made the admission after being grilled by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors during the hearing about the reasons behind her decision to renounce all of her statements about the flows of dirty money from the e-ID project to several House lawmakers, which had been recorded in the case’s investigation report.
“Before you testified in the court, around one or two weeks ago, did you meet with someone? Where was it?” KPK prosecutor Basir asked Miryam before the panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday.
Initially, Miryam did not want to answer the question but she had no choice but to give an answer after KPK prosecutors grilled her with the same question over and over again during the hearing.
“[...] I met with the person on Jl. Radio Dalam [in South Jakarta]. I went to his house but he did not show up, so I went home,” Miryam said.
Basir then asked her the name of the person. Miryam said his name was Rudy Alfonso, a lawyer who accompanied Setya when the Golkar Party chairman underwent questioning as part of the e-ID case in December 2016.
(Read also: Politician slams KPK investigator over threat accusation in e-ID case)
Basir later asked Miryam whether she had also met with Elsa Syarief, a lawyer who has represented Nazaruddin in a number of graft cases.
“Yes, I met with Elsa Syarief at her office. She borrowed my money at that time. She called me and said that she needed Rp 100 million [US$7,506.39]. I went there twice,” Miryam said.
Setya and Nazaruddin are among dozens of House lawmakers who have been accused of playing roles in the alleged illicit funneling of part of the Rp 5.9 trillion allocated for the project.
Miryam renounced her statements in the case’s investigation document on March 23.
Basir said he did not take Miryam at her word as KPK prosecutors believed that during her meeting with Elsa, someone else, whose name he did not give, had asked the lawmaker to renounce all the statements she had made during the investigation. “No other person was there other than Elsa,” Miryam insisted. (ebf)
