Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Bliss was short-lived for antigraft leaders embroiled in opposing an alleged conspiracy against them as the Constitutional Court ruled in their favor.
The Court annulled here Wednesday an article in the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) law which rules that its leaders must be removed once they are declared defendants.
The snag is that the two deputies being charged with bribery may still lose their jobs, given the KPK law which says commissioners must be dismissed after being inactive for longer than three months, which falls on Dec. 21 – while the Attorney General's Office shows no sign of rushing to save them.
In line with the President's advice that the cases should not go to court, Attorney General Hendarman Supandji has said his office would issue an order to stop the indictment process.
But on Wednesday junior attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendi said, "It's our business to slow down or speed up the order," meaning, no one else's.
However the KPK deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah still welcomed the ruling. "This ruling will ensure the future KPK leaders' safety so that what Pak Bibit and I experience now is not repeated," Chandra said.
The Constitutional Court ruled the above article in the KPK law could be abused, and also indicated evidence of judicial corruption by "brokers" in wiretapped conversations presented in Court.
This triggered public protests and a government fact-finding team, which urged the case be dropped; and that the President start institutional reforms to overcome the "destroyed" law enforcement in the country, owing to "ubiquitous brokers" of justice.
The Court judges said in their ruling, "After hearing the recordings, we... have found facts indicating engineering or fabrication of evidence or at least conversations between law enforcers and Anggodo Widjojo [an alleged middleman in the case] leading to potential fabrication of evidence so the two plaintiffs [Bibit and Chandra] can be made suspects or defendants."
Bibit and Chandra were declared suspects after the police accused them of extorting KPK fugitive Anggoro Widjojo, Anggodo's brother, and of abusing their power.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono then temporarily suspended them under the same law.
The above article in the 2002 KPK law "must be changed to 'KPK leaders can be dismissed only if the Court has issued a final ruling that finds them guilty,'" Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD said, reading the ruling on Wednesday.
The court also ruled that the article has violated the principles of the presumption of innocence and of equality before the law stipulated in the Constitution.
Mahfud, however, said this ruling could not be implemented in the case of the discharged KPK chairman Antasari Azhar because he had been dismissed long before the court handed down this ruling. He said Bibit and Chandra could immediately go back to work – if their cases were dropped.
Bambang Widjojanto, the deputies' lawyer, said the court had confirmed the nature and implications of the tape recordings, urging the President to quickly reinstate Bibit and Chandra by issuing a decree.
Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean, the acting KPK Chief, said Wednesday the acting KPK leaders would be more than willing to give their posts to Bibit and Chandra once the investigation into their cases was brought to a close.
Activist Danang Widoyoko expressed full support for both the KPK deputies and also efforts to fight what he said was part of an attempt to weaken the antigraft body.