T

he National Police announced Thursday they had named suspects in a document forgery case that allegedly implicates a former Constitutional Court justice and a politician from the Democratic Party.

National Police deputy chief detective Insp. Gen. Mathius Salempang said they had questioned four officials from the Constitutional Court as witnesses in a case that highlighted what has been viewed as “election mafia” practices. The police, however, declined to disclose the identities of the suspects.

“We have tried to trace the source of the forged document, which was in the Constitutional Court,” Mathius said. “However, it does not mean we are not investigating other related institutions, such as the General Elections Commission [KPU].”

Deputy Attorney General Darmono said at his office that he had received a letter from the National Police that identified one of the suspects as “M.H.” Local media surmised that the initials could refer to Mashuri Hasan, a former Constitutional Court official.

The case centered on the alleged falsification of the court’s letter awarding a House of Representatives seat to Dewi Yasin Limpo, a politician from the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), rather than Mestariani Habie from the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

The case alledgedly implicated former Constitutional Court justice Arsyad Sanusi as well as former General Election Commission (KPU) member and Democratic Party politician Andi Nurpati. The two have denied involvement in the case, even though several Constitutional Court officials apparently believe otherwise.

Also on Thursday, the House’s working committee set up to probe the case summoned a number of people linked to the case, including Constitutional Court officials Nallom Kurniawan, Zainal Arifin and Andi Nurpati. Nalom claimed that he was ordered by Arsyad to forge the fake letter.

Arsyad, who was also summoned by the working committee, played down the accusations, saying, “I have never seen the fake letter [or] the real [Constitutional Court] letter,” Arsyad said.

Constitutional Court spokesman Akil Mochtar said that the court supported the police investigation, but reminded that the police should hope to be able to discover the mastermind behind the case, rather than merely the perpetrator of the forgery. “The forger might be just the executor, while the mastermind might be someone else. The police should seek the mastermind if they want the case solved clearly,” he said, adding that he believed Arsyad, Andi and Dewi were involved in the crime. “It’s only natural for Arsyad to deny his role in the case. He has to defend himself. Police, however, should listen to other testimonies.”

He said the court had conducted an internal investigation before the case was exposed to the media. “We implemented sanctions on those who were found in breach of our regulations,” he added.

He said that the case showed that the KPU should review its own performance. “They neglected our clarification, which stated that the first letter was false.”

A Constitutional Court letter dated Aug. 14, 2009, later revealed to be a bogus, led the election commission to award Hanura the disputed seat during the Aug. 21, 2009 plenary session.

The Constitutional Court, however, sent the KPU a letter on Sept. 11, 2009 with the authentic document attached, stating that the forged letter was not in alignment with what the court had ruled. (lfr)