Heru Andriyanto – Less than two weeks after declaring the arrest of a Tangerang prosecutor a clear case of entrapment, the Attorney General's Office has backed off from its comments, saying the official will have to face the consequences of his actions.

Dwi Seno Widjanarko, a mid-ranking prosecutor, was apprehended by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Feb. 11 for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rp 50 million ($5,700) from a bank employee in exchange for dropping a fraud case against the banker's colleague.

The antigraft commission's officers had reportedly received a tip about the transaction and had placed Dwi under surveillance prior to his arrest.

Marwan Effendy, the deputy attorney general for internal supervision, had claimed Dwi's arrest constituted an act of entrapment by the KPK upon learning the amount of seized money used as evidence was not Rp 50 million, as the commission had publicly claimed.

"If the money was not that much, then [Dwi] could have been framed," Marwan said at the time. "If that is the case, the person who set up the arrest can be charged under Article 56 [of the Criminal Code] for allowing someone to commit to a crime."

He further stated that law-enforcement officials could not allow a crime to take place if they had prior knowledge that an offense was about to be committed, but should instead prevent it.

"It would be different if the prosecutor had been caught red-handed. Then there would be no problem with the arrest," Marwan said. "But if the evidence doesn't match with the earlier claim, we need to question whether the case was set up. This is just not right."

However, he has since backed off from these comments, saying Dwi should take responsibility for his actions. "The criminal and administrative offenses are solely the mistaken actions of Dwi. His actions were conducted outside the office and after working hours," Marwan said on Monday.

The AGO is in the midst of conducting an internal probe into the case, investigating the possible involvement of a number of district prosecutors in Tangerang, including the chief district prosecutor, the head of the general crimes unit, the head of the intelligence unit and the head of the prosecution unit.

An employee of Bank Rakyat Indonesia, who had been arrested by the antigraft commission along with Dwi, has also been interrogated.

However, Marwan said the AGO would not conduct further investigations into the alleged involvement of the arrested official's superiors, saying it was likely these officials would be cleared by the probe's findings.

"So far, there is no evidence of the involvement of [Dwi's] superiors," he said. "We have not found any signs of negligence [on the part of the superiors] in regard to internal monitoring procedures."