Heru Andriyanto & Armando Siahaan, Indonesia – A new war of words has erupted between members of the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force and graft convict Gayus Tambunan.

Moments after he was sentenced to seven years in jail by the South Jakarta District Court, Gayus used the occasion to launch a fresh attack on members of the task force, ranging from claiming it used the CIA to trap him and using him as a political pawn.

In response, the task force immediately organized a press conference to counter the accusations point by point.

Speaking to reporters in court, Gayus said the task force members had broken many of their promises to him.

"I'm very disappointed with task force members Denny Indrayana, Mas Achmad Santosa and Yunus Husein, who had promised to help me but in the end kept on cornering me," Gayus said.

Denny and Santosa were among the team that "accidentally" bumped into then-fugitive Gayus in Singapore in March last year and persuaded him to be cooperative and return to Indonesia to face the legal process.

But Gayus on Wednesday claimed that when the scandal over his acquittal last year broke, it was actually Denny who instructed him to go to Singapore and wait until his ex-lawyer, Haposan Hutagalung, was arrested before returning home.

Santosa flatly denied this. "The task force knew nothing about Gayus fleeing to Singapore," he said.

Denny showed reporters a saved BlackBerry Messenger conversation between him and Gayus. "Gayus, where are you?" Denny wrote on March 25, to no response. On March 29, Denny once again sent a message: "Where are you[?] If you're cooperative, things will be better." He later asked, "In Singapore?"

Denny pointed out that he wouldn't be asking these questions if the task force had actually instructed Gayus to flee to Singapore.

"This is one clue [indicating] that we didn't know his whereabouts," Denny said. "From this conversation, it was very clear that we did not arrange his trip to Singapore."

Gayus also claimed in court on Wednesday that task force members forced him to mainly target the Bakrie Group.

"I was reported to having met Ical [Aburizal Bakrie] in Bali, which is untrue. Denny tried to force my wife to admit that I met Bakrie. Should she say so if the meeting never took place?" he said.

But Santosa pointed out that it was Gayus and his lawyer, Adnan Buyung Nasution, who mentioned Bakrie's companies in court.

Gayus, who is said to have helped 151 companies with their tax problems, testified during hearings last year that he was paid Rp 35 billion ($3.9 million) by three Bakrie Group companies – Kaltim Prima Coal, Bumi Resources and Arutmin – in exchange for helping them ease tax obligations, allegations the companies have vehemently denied.

Denny also handed out a transcript of a recorded conversation between Ito Sumardi, Tito Karavian and Gayus when they were in Singapore in March. In the transcript, it was indicated that Gayus was the first one to mention Bakrie's name. "Is it okay to link Bakrie, sir?" Gayus said, without elaborating on what he meant.

Santosa also denied that the task force specifically appointed Adnan as Gayus's lawyer, claiming that they actually offered Gayus others, such as Alex Lay, Taufik Basari and Bambang Widjajanto. "It was Gayus himself who then decided to appoint [Adnan]," he said.

Gayus said that Denny promised him that he would be treated as a whistle-blower if he agreed to help uncover the tax mafia scandal, but then "Denny used me merely as a political tool."

In a wild new allegation, Gayus said that a CIA agent working with the task force had helped him obtain a Guyanese passport "According to what John Grice has said, he is a CIA agent and his activities were known by the task force," he said.

John Jerome Grice is an American national on the National Police wanted list for allegedly helping Gayus obtain a Guyanese passport. Authorities had earlier found e-mailed copies of Guyanese passports sent by Grice to Arie Nur Irawan, a member of an alleged passport ring who supposedly took the photo used in one of Gayus's false documents.

"The task force knows nothing about that information, and Gayus has to prove the truth behind the information that he received," Santosa said.

US Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel, asked by reporters at the House of Representatives about the allegation on Wednesday, said the US government had nothing to do with Gayus's case. The ambassador said the allegations a CIA agent helping Gayus obtain a fake passport only served to divert public attention away from the main legal issue.

One of the Guyanese passports found was under the name of Yosep Morris, born on May 9, 1979, in Georgetown, Guyana's capital. Another document, with the photo of a woman resembling Gayus's wife Milana Anggraeni, was under the name Ann Morris, born on May 6, 1979, also in Georgetown.

On Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Agung Sabar Santoso, the National Police Chief of transnational crimes, said it appeared Gayus and his family had been planning to move to Guyana, as they found Gayus's three sons had fake Guyanese passports as well. He said they also found fake birth certificates for the three sons.

[Additional reporting by Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Farouk Arnaz.]