Nivell Rayda & Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – A key piece of evidence that served as the basis for charging two deputies of the Corruption Eradication Commission with extortion does not appear to exist, according to the testimony of a National Police officer at a special hearing at the Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday.
Comr. Farman, who led the investigation last year into Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah, told the court that police did not possess the supposed wiretapped recordings between middleman Ary Muladi and Ade Rahardja, the chief of graft enforcement for the antigraft agency, also known as the KPK.
But in November, National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri had told House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, that 64 recordings of conversations between Ade and Ary had implicated Bibit and Chandra and justified naming them as suspects.
The court last week ordered the National Police to present the recordings, but they showed up empty-handed on Tuesday.
The KPK has said businessman Anggodo Widjojo, who wanted the KPK to drop its case against his brother, Anggoro, helped fabricate the extortion case against the two deputies.
Ary initially testified last year that he had channeled Rp 5.1 billion ($565,000) from Anggodo to Bibit and Chandra, with Ade delivering the bribes. But Ary later recanted his statements and said he instead gave the money to a person named Yulianto, who has never been found.
"[The recordings] were not among the list of evidence that we have obtained," Farman told the court when asked by the prosecution whether police investigators had possession of the wiretaps.
Bibit's and Chandra's lawyer, Taufik Basari, said this could mean the recordings never existed in the first place.
"If they do exist, then I don't see the difficulties in presenting them to court. We need the National Police chief to tell the truth. Did they have enough evidence to begin an investigation or not?" he said.
During Anggodo's trial last month, Ade told the court that police had not questioned him about the recordings, nor was his voice compared to those on the tapes.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang refused to comment on Farman's remark or why police had yet to present the so-called evidence to the court.
A police document obtained by the Jakarta Globe indicates that they had obtained only Ade's and Ary's call data records, which show the phone numbers, duration of calls and when the calls were made. The document also suggests that police had closed-circuit television footage as well, but it was never made clear what was recorded.
During Anggodo's trial, Ade and Ary claimed they had never contacted each other and that the phone numbers cited by police were not theirs.
Anggodo's lawyer, Thomson Situmeang, said he would continue to push the police to disclose all of the evidence that they claimed to have. "I don't think police would make bogus claims and charge Bibit and Chandra out of nothing," he said. "Whatever evidence police have would prove that my client is only a victim of extortion."
On Tuesday, the prosecution also summoned Wisnu Subroto, former deputy attorney general of intelligence. The KPK had publicly released several recordings that indicate that Wisnu was supposedly asked by Anggodo to persuade another witness, Eddy Sumarsono, to change his testimony.
"I admit that Anggodo did contact me, but it was only a harmless conversation," Wisnu told the court. "I told Anggodo to settle his differences with Eddy directly. I refused to go along and persuade Eddy to change his testimony even though Eddy and me are close friends."
Eddy had testified in court that Anggodo tried to pay him off to give a false statement to the police about having bribed the two KPK deputies.
Anggodo said that he regretted calling Wisnu and that the KPK had recorded their conversation. Since the wiretapped recordings between Anggodo and Wisnu were aired in court, the AGO official had been demoted.
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this," Anggodo told Wisnu. Later, Anggodo, with tear-filled eyes and a trembling voice, approached Wisnu, bowed and kissed his hand.