Jakarta – Indonesian Parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tanjung will retain his post after all, despite his ongoing corruption trial.

After a two-hour meeting on Tuesday, three deputy House speakers - Messrs Tosari Widjaja, AM Fatwa and Muhaimin Iskandar - announced that Akbar would retain his position and they would take on his duties while he was in the custody of the Attorney-General's Office.

Another deputy, Mr Sutardjo Surjogoeritno, was away on a visit to Morocco. "The meetings in the House will proceed as usual and will be presided over by one of us," Mr Tosari said.

He said the decision was based on Article 21 of the House's internal regulations which state that if the House Speaker is unable to carry out his duties, the deputies will take over the tasks.

Based on a consensus between the deputy speakers, economic and financial issues will be handled by Mr Tosari, political and security affairs will be in the hands of Mr Sutardjo, social affairs will be tackled by Mr Muhaimin, and Mr Fatwa will be in charge of people's welfare.

Akbar, whose trial resumes next Monday, has maintained his innocence in the the embezzlement of 40 billion rupiah (S$8 million) in funds from the state logistics agency Bulog.