Two Cabinet ministers implicated in the BI liquidity support scandal declared their innocence Tuesday after a Golkar Party lawmaker testified Monday at the Corruption Court of their complicity.

In response to the court findings, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would respect the legal process and the facts revealed in the BI corruption trials, presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said.

"As for the President, he leaves it to whatever the legal facts are. Those concerned can defend themselves, based on the principle of presumed innocence," he said.

State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta declined to confirm or deny if he accepted Rp 1 billion (US$109,600) in embezzled funds from the central bank when serving as a lawmaker in 2003.

"This is what I believe in my heart, but it depends on the court. I will abide by the legal process should I be declared guilty," he said.

Separately, Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Ka'ban flatly denied accepting part of the misappropriated Rp 100 billion funds five years ago, when he was a member of House of Representatives' Commission IX for banking and financial affairs.

"I never accepted it and I deny what Pak Hamka Yandhu said," he said as quoted by Antara.

Golkar lawmaker Hamka testified at the Corruption Court on Monday that Ka'ban and Paskah accepted Rp 300 million and Rp 1 billion each from the central bank.

Hamka said the money was part of the total Rp 31.5 billion he received from then BI communications bureau head Rusli Simanjuntak.

Hamka also said he and fellow Golkar politician Anthony Zeidra Abidin (who is the Jambi deputy governor) distributed the money to all 52 Commission IX members, when working to amend the BI law and resolve corruption cases over swindled Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) funds in 2003-2004.

Each was given at least Rp 250 million, Hamka added.

"Hamka was most likely panicking, and it's also possible he forgot because we (Paskah and I) were members of the commission. He was just reconciling the figures the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has accused him of distributing," argued Ka'ban.

The KPK, according to its deputy chairman Chandra Hamzah, would proceed with the investigation of former members of the Commission IX implicated in the scandal.

"But we'll wait for the ongoing trials of the three defendants," he said Tuesday.

Former BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah and former BI legal affairs deputy Oey Hoey Tiong, along with Rusli Simanjuntak, are being tried at the Corruption Court in this graft case.

The KPK alleges Burhanuddin, together with then deputy governors Aulia Pohan, Aslim Tadjuddin and Bun Bunan Hutapea, approved the disbursement of Rp 100 billion from BI's Indonesian Banking Development Foundation in a June 3, 2003, meeting.

House Speaker Agung Laksono asked the legislature's ethics council to challenge Hamka's court testimony against lawmakers.

"The case has damaged the House's image, and therefore the House will fully support the KPK's efforts to resolve it through legal measures," he said.

Agung said the House would not interfere with nor prevent due legal process against those involved.

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