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Jakarta Post

AGO vows to ensure `clean' process for its two prosecutors

Deputy Attorney General Darmono said the Attorney General's Office would conduct a thorough evaluation into the possible role of prosecutors in the graft case of tax official Gayus Tambunan

Dicky Christanto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, August 7, 2010 Published on Aug. 7, 2010 Published on 2010-08-07T11:42:34+07:00

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D

eputy Attorney General Darmono said the Attorney General's Office would conduct a thorough evaluation into the possible role of prosecutors in the graft case of tax official Gayus Tambunan.

"We will pay serious attention to what happened during the trial by conducting a thorough evaluation into the whole indictment process," Darmono said Friday.

The statement came in response to police commissioner Muhammad Arafat Enanie's testimony in a hearing earlier this week alleging the involvement of prosecutors Cirus Sinaga and Poltak Manulang, who were accused of building a weak case to help acquit Gayus in March.

Arafat said both Cirus and Poltak cooperated with police investigators, including himself, to arrange Gayus' questioning at a hotel, not at the national police headquarters.

During the questioning, the law enforcement officers discussed how they would engineer the case. Arafat said the prosecutors suggested the police investigators omit graft from their list of charges and replace it with the lighter charge of embezzlement.

Arafat complained to the court that his testimony regarding the role of the prosecutors never made it into the case files.

Darmono said all questioning sessions should have been listed in the case files. "We should ask whether the questioning session - the one not listed in the case file - actually exists," he said.

Junior attorney general for internal monitoring Marwan Effendy had stated that the fact that Cirus and Poltak had omitted the graft charges from Gayus' indictment had been duly noted by his predecessor Hamzah Tadja.

He added that both Cirus and Poltak had received administrative sanctions because of this "mistake".

Marwan said his office had done its best and could not further punish the two prosecutors unless new evidence emerged.

An anonymous source with ties to law enforcement officers said the police had not named the prosecutors as suspects because Cirus and Poltak had threatened that they would snitch on several high-ranking police officers involved in the case.

However both the AGO and the National Police deny the claims, calling them baseless.

Currently, there are nine suspects in the tax graft case: Gayus, Alif Kuncoro, Andi Kosasih, Lambertus, Roberto Santonius, Arafat, Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini, Haposan Hutagalung and Sjahril Djohan.

The case first began when Gayus, who amassed a fortune in excess of Rp 100 billion from allegedly corrupt sources, was acquitted of embezzlement by the Tangerang District Court in March.

An alleged conspiracy with law enforcement officials was then brought to public attention by former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who is now also on trial for graft.

Antigraft activists have accused the police of tampering with the investigation into their peers who allegedly tampered with the initial Gayus case.

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