lawyer of Constitutional Court (MK) justice Patrialis Akbar, who is implicated in a bribery investigation, has questioned the arrest of his client by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Indra Sahnun Lubis, who is also the chairman of the Association of Indonesian Lawyers (IPHI), said the arrest was flawed, because his client had not been caught red-handed receiving a bribe when the KPK investigators carried out their arrest last Wednesday.
“It is incorrect to call it a sting operation, because no transaction was found taking place during the raid,” he said at KPK headquarters on Tuesday.
A KPK spokesperson had said on Monday evening that the arrest was in accordance with the Corruption Law, because the illicit transaction had been conducted long before the raid was carried out.
(Read also: Patrialis' arrest nothing to do with religion, party: Ex-chief justice)
KPK investigators arrested Patrialis, along with 10 other people, during raids in three separate locations in Jakarta last Wednesday over alleged bribery in connection with a judicial review of a law on cattle health.
Apart from Patrialis, the antigraft body named three more people suspects in the case, namely Kamaludin, Ng Fenny and Basuki Hariman, a businessman who allegedly bribed the judge to influence the review.
The KPK has reportedly confiscated the draft of a judicial review verdict and a voucher worth US$20,000 as evidence.
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