JAKARTA, Nov 4 — Wiretap recordings pointing to an alleged high-level conspiracy to muzzle Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency were played in court and broadcast live on national television yesterday.
Constitutional Court president Mohammad Mahfud MD accepted the recordings as evidence presented by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to back its claims that police, prosecutors and corruption suspects colluded against two of its senior officers.
Two of KPK’s four deputy chairmen, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah, were arrested last week and detained on charges of bribery and abuse of power. They have denied the charges.
The recordings, which lasted five hours, also contained damning claims that the conspiracy was backed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Responding to the allegations, presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said yesterday that Yudhoyono was planning legal action against those who had dragged his name into the scandal, which has emerged as a fresh test for the new coalition government.
The President has angrily denied any involvement in the alleged plot against the KPK and has ordered an independent team to investigate the controversial police detention of Bibit and Chandra.
Team head Adnan Buyong Nasution, who was present in court yesterday with his investigators, said he would ask the police chief to release the two detained graft-busters. The police said late last night that the pair would be released.
In the secretly taped phone conversations, a man believed to be Anggodo Widjojo, the brother of fugitive businessman Anggoro Widjojo, was heard discussing with police officers and senior prosecutors ways to save his brother.
The wiretapping was carried out between July 23 and Aug 10 this year, as part of an investigation of the fugitive businessman.
One of the ways of saving him cited in the recordings was to use false testimony to place Bibit and Chandra behind bars for accepting bribes. There was even a suggestion that once Chandra was locked up, “we can finish him off”.
The man identified as Anggodo was overheard trying to persuade officials at the Attorney- General’s Office and the national police into believing statements made last year by his brother. Anggoro had then claimed to have paid six billion rupiah (RM2.15 million) in bribes to Bibit and Chandra in return for not naming him as a suspect in a separate bribery case.
Two of the officials were identified as Wisnu Subroto, the recently retired deputy attorney-general for intelligence, and Ketut Sudiarsa of the witness protection agency. Deputy Attorney-General Abdul Hakim Ritonga and police chief of detectives Susno Duadji were also implicated in the scandal.
Excerpts of transcripts of the recordings had already been widely published in the local media, triggering a public backlash against the police and the Attorney-General’s Office.
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Jakarta for a second day yesterday in support of the KPK, which has arrested several top officials in the past five years.
There have been growing calls on the President to sack police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji, although both of them have denied any plot to undermine the KPK. — The Straits Times
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