Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation is planning to file an ethics complaint today against legislators who barred two antigraft officials from House of Representatives hearings last week.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy commissioners Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah were asked to leave hearings on Monday and Wednesday due to their technical status as extortion suspects.
Erna Ratnaningsih, chairwoman of the foundation, or YLBHI, said the officials should have been allowed to attend the sessions of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs.
She said they would lodge the complaint with the legislature's ethics committee.
"We allege that by forcing their working partners to leave a hearing, the lawmakers had violated Law No. 27/2009 and a House speaker decree about the legislature's ethical code," Erna said on Sunday.
The Golkar Party's Nurdirman Munir had justified the ban by saying Bibit and Chandra remained suspects for extortion and abuse of power over their handling of a 2009 graft case involving businessman Anggoro Widjojo, who has since been convicted for graft.
Although the Attorney General's Office had dropped the charges, Nudirman said the pair were still considered suspects.
The rebuffs were widely seen as retribution for the KPK's ongoing prosecution of 19 former and active lawmakers over a 2004 bribery case tied to the election of a Bank Indonesia vice governor.
Should the ethics council probe the ban on the KPK officials, Deputy Chairman Nudirman should not be part of the team, the YLBHI said. "We hope the probe could be conducted independently," Erna said.
But Bambang Susatyo, a Golkar lawmaker and member of Commission III, urged the YLBHI to reconsider its complaint, saying the ban had valid reasons.
He said Bibit and Chandra should not be allowed to attend House hearings until the KPK publicly revealed "who was behind" moves to charge the deputies over the graft case.
At the time, the accusations against Bibit and Chandra were widely believed to be trumped-up, especially after wiretapped phone conversations between Anggoro's brother and law enforcers suggested the case was fabricated.
"We will never recognize the deponeering as long as [the KPK has] not publicly revealed the one who made a cases against [Bibit and Chandra]," Bambang said. "Such purpose should be supported by the public, including YLBHI," he added.
Earlier, Indonesia Corruption Watch said legislators had been acting unethically. The House, the watchdog said, should have understood that this kind of action would draw considerable negative publicity.