Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office decision to halt the prosecution against of two KPK deputies for the sake of public interest is flawed and violates the law, legislators say.
Gayus Lumbuun, a lawmaker of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), told a discussion on Sunday that acting Attorney General Darmono was not authorized to make such a move since he was only an interim official.
"The Attorney General's Office [AGO] law clearly states that the authority to issue a 'deponering' lies with the attorney general. It does not mention anything about giving the authority to an interim official."
Deponering is an Indonesian legal term (derived from the Dutch) whereby the Attorney General's Office (AGO) can halt a case in the interests of national stability.
The AGO decided to adopt this measure to drop the extortion and abuse of power charges against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah.
"The AGO will break the law if it insists on playing this card," Gayus said, adding that this was a political move that required endorsement from the House of Representatives, the President and the Supreme Court.
Achmad Yani, a lawmaker from the United Development Party (PPP), said a deponering implied that prosecutors had strong grounds to prosecute Bibit and Chandra, but had balked at bringing them to court to avoid a public outcry.
"The move only confirms that the AGO believed the two KPK deputies were graft suspects. If the pair are considered innocent, the AGO could have issued an SP3," he said, referring to a warrant to terminate an investigation due to lack of evidence.
Antigraft activists beg to differ. Febri Diansyah of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said he had no problem with the AGO decision, provided it would help strengthen the battered KPK.
"For us, the only thing that is important is for the KPK to regain its power to fight corruption. It could be used to provide great momentum to the KPK to continue its struggle," he said.
Febri added that the commission should now begin to investigate the alleged conspiracy between the police and the AGO to weaken the KPK by fabricating evidence to charge Bibit and Chandra with blackmailing Anggoro Widjojo, who has been convicted of attempted bribery.
Achmad Rivai, one of Bibit and Chandra's lawyers, said former National Police chief Gen. (ret) Bambang Hendarso Danuri and former attorney general Hendarman Supandji should be questioned regarding the allegations.
The investigation of Bibit and Chandra's case was conducted by the police last year after Anggodo testified that he had been blackmailed by Bibit and Chandra through Ary Muladi. Then national police chief Gen. (ret) Bambang Hendarso Danuri had guaranteed that the police investigation was solid.
Bambang's statement was then backed up by Hendarman. However, both the police and prosecutors failed to produced this evidence.