Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) says it welcomed the Attorney General Office's decision on Monday to drop prosecution of two KPK deputies, despite lingering doubts on the case's origins.
"What's important is for us is that we have explained to the public that the case was engineered by corrupt people who want to destroy KPK," KPK deputy chief Mochamad Jasin told The Jakarta Post.
Tape recorded conversations played at the Constitutional Court as it heard the case of graft convict Anggodo Widjojo showed that the bribery and abuse of power charges leveled against KPK deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah were orchestrated by Anggodo, senior police officers and prosecutors.
Jasin said he was relieved that the mastermind of behind Bibit and Chandra's case had been sentenced to prison, though he was disappointed that no police officers or prosecutors implicated in the case were named suspects.
He added that his office would not interfere with AGO's decision. "It's the authority of the AGO to invoke deponeering. The KPK won't thrust its nose into it," he said.
Attorney General Basrief Arief said on Monday that he had signed all the documents needed to invoke the legal principle of deponeering, which allowed the government to officially drop the case against Bibit and Chandra in the public interest.
Critics said the move would forever leave the KPK deputies as suspects as the AGO had never claimed that it lacked sufficient evidence to bring to pair to court, nor did it admit that the case had been fabricated.
Bibit and Chandra's attorney, Taufik Basari, said deponeering might be misused to criminalize the deputies in the future since it why the pair were implicated in wrongdoing, or who was behind the jury-rigged case.
He said that it would be better for the AGO to have halted the case citing new evidence from Anggodo's trial which showed that the businessman was guilty of attempting to bribe the pair.
"Using the fact that Anggodo has been proven guilty will clear Bibit and Chandra from any accusations and possible criminalization in the future – while deponeering will merely cause a public outcry," he said.
In September the Corruption Court sentenced Anggodo to four years' imprisonment. The Jakarta High Court later added one year to his sentence.
"Don't just stop there. They have to follow up the deponeering decision and investigate the actors behind the fabrication case," Taufik said.
Taufik said it was better to remain optimistic that the Basrief's decision would improve the performance of the nation's top antigraft body.
KPK spokesperson Johan Budi agreed, saying that the Attorney General's decision to invoke deponeering at last gave Bibit and Chandra a certain degree of certainty.