T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has pledged to step up its crackdown on future bribe-taking acts following two separate arrests it made in the past two weeks involving prosecutors. They were bribed by suspects to compromise the handling of graft cases.

On Tuesday, the KPK arrested two prosecutors from the West Java prosecutor’s office after catching them red-handed accepting bribes from defendants in order to devise lenient sentences for defendants currently being tried at the Bandung Corruption Court. The two were also alleged to have arranged a scheme to scrap the role of Subang regent Ojang Sohandi, a possible suspect in the case, from the prosecution.

The arrests came just 12 days after the KPK arrested two company executives for allegedly attempting to bribe Jakarta Prosecutor’s Office head Sudung Situmorang through prosecutor Tomo Sitepu, who, according to the KPK, would also be prosecuted in the case.

“We need to step up efforts to crackdown on the criminal justice system to better our law enforcement,” KPK commissioner Laode Muhammad Syarif told a press briefing when announcing the detention of five people, including the two prosecutors and Ojang.

On Monday, Ojang bribed prosecutors Devianti Rochaeni and Fahri Nurmallo through Lenih Marliani, also arrested, to lessen the sentence of her husband Jajang Abdul Kholik, the head of public service division at Subang Health Agency. Jajang is currently being tried at Bandung court for alleged embezzlement of Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) funds, which could implicate Ojang. Both Devianti and Fahri are prosecutors handling the BPJS case, which caused Rp 4 billion (US$305,000) in state losses.

Immediately after arresting Devianti at the prosecutor’s office, KPK investigators moved to nab Ojang in Subang after discovering the Rp 582 million Lenih used to bribe Devianti was financed by the regent, likely to disengage himself from the case.

Fahri was not in West Java when the sting operation got underway. He surrendered after the KPK asked him to hand himself in to KPK headquarters in order to avoid a forceful arrest.

Hours after the two prosecutors’ arrest, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) lambasted the KPK for what it called an “improper raid” without the necessary warrants.

“I will firstly study the report from the West Java Prosecutor’s Office to find out whether there was a search and confiscation warrant for the case. Things should not go that way,” AGO supervisory division head Widyo Pramono said on Monday.

Laode played down Widyo’s accusation, saying the AGO’s statement was baseless because the KPK did not conduct a search and confiscation operation, where KPK investigators already had an arrest warrant signed by KPK leaders when they apprehended Devianti.

The two arrests has tarnished the image of prosecutor’s offices nationwide as graft-ridden law enforcement bodies.

“With regard to the case involving [Sudung and Sitepu], don’t worry about it. We will not stop and we will continue the investigation [of the two],” KPK chairman Agus Raharjo said.

On April 1, the KPK arrested executives of developer PT Brantas Abipraya, Sudi Wantoko and Dandung Pamularno, for bribing Sudung and Sitepu through a middleman identified as Marudut. The KPK arrested Marudut just before handing money over to Sudung. The KPK said it was just a matter of time that the two prosecutors would be named suspects.