T

he former Constitutional Court justice accused by his former colleagues of falsifying a court document in favor of a plaintiff said he was ready to confront his accusers.

“I’m ready to be confronted by anyone, including [Constitutional Court chief justice] Mahfud M.D.,” he said on the sidelines of a police interrogation over his alleged role in the court document forgery case linked to a 2009 election dispute. The case allegedly implicates several Constitutional Court officials and former General Election Commission (KPU) member Andi Nurpati, who left the commission to join President Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono’s Democratic Party.

Arsyad claimed the forgery case in which he was implicated had been manipulated by the Constitutional Court. “This is character assassination. This has come from the people who want to assassinate my family’s character,” he said.

The Constitutional Court previously said that it had conducted an internal investigation into the case and found indications that Arsyad and Andi Nurpati had forged a letter to award a House of Representatives seat to Dewi Yasin Limpo, a politician from the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura).

The court officially ruled that the seat should be given to Mestariani Habie from the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), who broke the case when she sent a complaint to the court.

The police announced that they have named several suspects in the case, including former Constitutional Court staff Mashuri Hasan, who was arrested in Bandung on Friday. The other suspects have not yet been identified.

Also on Friday, Constitutional Court spokesman Harjono said the court would help the police in their investigation.

“The police had arrested one suspect, who was a court employee. It meant that the court, however, had relevance to the case,” he said. “Thus, we are ready to cooperate, if the police need additional information or evidence.”

Harjono said that the court would welcome the police if they wanted to question additional people as witnesses. As of today, the police have questioned four Constitutional Court officials: Nallom Kurniawan, Alifah Rahmawati, Pan Muhammad Fais and Riska Aprian.

Mahfud said that the court would supervise the case. “We will seek to ensure the investigation.”

Another justice, Akil Mochtar, said the police would reprimand the police if they fail to seriously probe the case. He said the case was more than just an ordinary forgery case — the tip of an iceberg of corrupt practices involving many state institutions.

Andi Nurpati denied the allegations, although his former subordinates had given testimony that seems to confirm the statements.

During a hearing before the House’s special committee set up to probe the case on Thursday, Andi and her former staff member Madnur and former driver Aryo gave contradictory statements.

Andi said she had ordered Aryo to give the Constitutional Court letter on Mestariani’s victory to KPU chief Hafid Azhari, but Aryo said she had told him to give a letter from the Constitutional Court to Madnur.

The letter was given to Aryo by Mashuri Hasan from the Constitutional Court on Aug. 17, 2009. Madnur said Andi had ordered him to “keep” the letter, rather than sending it to the KPU chief.

“The failure of the letter to reach the KPU led to the KPU plenary session, which then gave the chair to Hanura,” legislator Abdul Malik Haramain said on the sidelines of the meeting.

It was later found that the KPU had used a forged letter to give the seat to Dewi Yasin Limpo. (rcf/lfr)