Jakarta – Prosecutors at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) are considering halting legal proceedings against two KPK deputy chairmen accused of blackmail and abuse of power.
Interim Attorney General Darmono said the AGO not decided whether to halt legal proceedings for the sake of public welfare in a process referred to as deponeering, or to allow the case to enter court.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah's legal woes began when bribery convict Anggodo Widjojo accused the pair of abusing their power and blackmailing his brother, fugitive graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo.
Following rallying public pressure to end attempts to criminalize the two KPK deputies, the AGO issued a prosecution cessation order at the end of last year.
However, the order was later overturned by South Jakarta District Court and Jakarta High Court, since it failed to fulfill certain legal considerations, which prompted the AGO to file a case review with the Supreme Court.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court overturned the AGO's case review, leaving them with two main options: deponeering or allowing the case to go to trial.
An evaluation team, headed by AGO special crimes secretary Andi Nirwanto will review the Supreme Court decision and recommend what option the AGO should take on the Bibit and Chandra case during the week, Darmono said.
"We shall wait for the team's decision, which we hope will be delivered as soon as possible," Andi said, as reported by kompas.com. "This is clearly the [option] that bears the least risks," he said.
Darmono also clarified a statement issued previously by the assistant attorney general for special crimes, Amari, who said the AGO had opted for deponeering, acknowledging that his subordinate experienced "a slip of the tongue".
"I have already spoken to him and he has apologized regarding his statement about the legal option," Darmono said. Earlier in the day, Amari said the AGO had chosen "deponeering as our position", firing up widespread media reports that the AGO has finalized its next move.
M. Jasin, another KPK deputy chairman, said the commission would wait for and respect whatever the decision the AGO made.
Constitutional Court justice Akil Mochtar said that deponeering would be the best choice because it would prevent "draining the nation's energy unnecessarily".
He added that deponeering would not imply that the deputies were indeed culpable for the crimes they were accused of. Akil said the deponeering option was within the interim attorney general's authority.
Previously, a debate ensued between legal experts on whether the interim attorney general held the authority to issue a deponeering. The "best move [for this case] is for it to go to court," Commission III lawmaker Gayus Lumbuun said, adding that opinion polls needed to be conducted to gauge whether the public still demanded an end to the prosecution. (gzl)