Nivell Rayda & Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – The National Police could be charged with contempt of court should they fail to present key evidence in the case against two Corruption Eradication Commission deputies at the Anti-Corruption Court next week, analysts and a lawyer said on Tuesday.
The court last month ordered the National Police to disclose the recordings and footage, which the police claim indicates that Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra M Hamzah received a Rp 5.1 billion ($571,000) payoff from businessman Anggodo Widjojo.
Bibit and Chandra were charged by the National Police with extortion while Anggodo is now on trial for attempted bribery and obstruction of justice and is being prosecuted by the antigraft agency, also known as the KPK.
In its attempt to resolve an apparent legal quandary over the case stemming from the conflicting arguments of the two law-enforcement bodies, the court ordered both sides to disclose all of their evidence in the case.
However, police on Tuesday failed for a second time at Anggodo's trial to present 64 wiretapped conversations they said they had recorded between an official at the antigraft commission and a suspected middleman.
"We ask the court to again instruct the National Police to disclose the recordings because the court has already made a direct order.
This is contempt of court, your honor," Anggodo's lawyer Otto Cornelius Kaligis told the court. KPK prosecutor Suwardji told the court that the National Police had not responded to the court order.
"If the National Police are confident the recording does exist then there should be no problem disclosing the recordings. Failure to do so would mean that they are defying a court order," Hasril Hertanto, a legal analyst from the University of Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe.
"Unless however, the recordings don't exist. If so, then police have made empty claims to justify their move to undermine the KPK."
Zainal Arifin Muchtar, a legal analyst from Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said the National Police's failure to present the evidence indicated that police were wrong to charge Bibit and Chandra.
"This is not only contempt of court. This is an insult to common sense," Zainal told the Globe. "The police chief and the attorney general must make a public apology for making slanderous remarks," he said.
National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji told legislators in November that they were justified in charging the KPK officials with corruption.
Bambang and Hendarman made the remarks after a presidentially appointed fact-finding team concluded the National Police and the AGO had fabricated a case against the KPK deputies on weak evidence.
But since the Anti-Corruption Court issued the order last month, both have been vague about the existence of the evidence. Bambang said last week that police did have the recordings, but they had been misplaced.
"We're still looking for them but they're in our possession," he said. "At the moment we can't respond to the court's demand."
Rudi Satrio, another University of Indonesia analyst, questioned Bambang's remark. "How can a key piece of evidence be misplaced? This is a major case, one that could possibly threatens the credibility of the police if Bibit and Chandra are acquitted," he told the Globe.
The AGO halted the criminal prosecution of Bibit and Chandra in December, but Anggodo challenged the decision to drop the charges. The South Jakarta District Court in April sided with him, ordering the AGO to renew its prosecution of the case.
Zainal said the failure of the police to present the evidence would force the Supreme Court to overrule the district court's decision and permanently halt the case against Bibit and Chandra.