Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a suspect in a Rp 410 billion ($45.5 million) embezzlement case, says he is being made a scapegoat as part of a sinister political plot involving blackmail and the PT Bank Century bailout.

In a discussion at the House of Representatives on Friday, Yusril said he had been told of a conspiracy to make him the fall guy in the case, which involves a Web site at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights that allowed companies to register online.

Prosecutors say site operator PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika took 90 percent of the revenue generated by the site, with ministry officials getting 10 percent.

Yusril claimed that Bambang Tri, the brother of Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, had told him that Hendarman had been blackmailed by members of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, to name him a suspect.

He said he was told that lawmakers had pressured Hendarman by claiming to have evidence that the attorney general and State Secretary Sudi Silalahi had received a combined $3 million from the Web site.

United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker Ahmad Yani, who was at the discussion, confirmed that he and five other Commission III members had met privately with Hendarman, but refused to discuss the blackmail threat. He did say that Hendarman had told the lawmakers that he had been gunning for Yusril for a long time.

"But if he really got his brother to tell this story to Yusril, then his position must be reviewed because he has clearly bowed to political pressure," he said, adding that Commission III would call a hearing with Hendarman to discuss the matter.

Yusril said this was not his first run-in with attorney general. He said that in 2005, Hendarman, then the head of an antigraft task force, summoned him for questioning in a corruption case. "When I asked him why he'd summoned me, he said it was Sudi's call, based on the president's order," he said.

He added that when he confronted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and threatened to quit the cabinet, the president denied giving any such order.

Yusril also said that shortly after his name topped a survey of potential presidential candidates in 2008, he was again hauled up by the attorney general, this time for questioning in the ministry Web site case, but no charges were pressed.

This is not Yusril's first attack on Hendarman since being named a suspect. He is also challenging the legality of the attorney general's position at the Constitutional Court.

In addition, he claimed that the current charges went back to the controversial Bank Century bailout. "The powers that be are trying everything they can to distract the public from the case," Yusril said. "I won't let them get away with it. When the time comes, I'm going to tell everything I know about the bailout."