JAKARTA, Nov 12 — In a dramatic reversal of his previous statement, a key prosecution witness in the trial of Indonesia’s former top graft buster told a court that police had forced him to implicate Antasari Azhar in the murder of a love rival.
The shocking disclosure came as the Attorney-General decided to proceed with charges against two deputy chairmen of the anti-corruption agency, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Former police commissioner-general Williardi Wizar told a Jakarta district court on Tuesday that two senior police officers had forced him to make false statements to accuse Antasari of the mob-style murder of Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, director of a state-owned pharmaceutical company, in March.
“Just do your best so that we can use the dossier to frame Antasari, and you will be free to go by tomorrow,” said Williardi, repeating for the court instructions from one of the senior officers.
But in a swift denial of the shocking testimony yesterday, police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said: “There was no fabrication in the case against Antasari Azhar. (Williardi) made the statements against Antasari willingly and without being forced to do so.”
Later, at a press conference, the spokesman played a video recording of the interrogation for reporters which showed Williardi looking relaxed, drinking mineral water and smoking while talking freely to investigators at the police headquarters.
Williardi said police had guaranteed his release in return for giving false evidence in line with a report prepared from another defendant, businessman Sigid Haryo Wibisono.
He claimed the two officers — whose names were disclosed in court as Inspector-General Hadiatmoko, former deputy chief of the national police’s criminal investigation unit, and Brigadier-General Irawan Dahlan, a senior investigator — told him that it was on the instructions of national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri. This was the same allegation Williardi made against General Bambang a day earlier at the separate trials of the alleged assassins at a Tangerang district court.
Antasari, Williardi and Sigid are being tried separately for the murder of Nasrudin, who was killed in a drive-by shooting after a golf game in Tangerang.
General Bambang admitted yesterday that the police had been “pushed into a corner” by Williardi’s shocking testimony.
“How can a commissioner-general (Williardi) who is being investigated (by lesser officers) be forced?” he asked when reporters confronted him for a comment about the allegations yesterday.
The shock over the testimony came on the same day that Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji insisted that he was going ahead with prosecuting two of Antasari’s deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah, on bribery and abuse of power charges. — The Straits Times
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