Ulma Haryanto, Anita Rachman & Antara – An unsolicited payment to a Constitutional Court official from Democratic Party legislator Muhammad Nazaruddin might have been an attempt to discredit the court, its chief justice said on Sunday.

"It could be a conspiracy whereby sometime in the future this man could disclose that [the court] wasn't clean and that its chief could be bribed," Mahfud M.D. said of an alleged attempt in September to give court secretary Janedjri M. Gaffar two envelopes containing a total of 120,000 Singapore dollars ($97,000).

He said the payment could have been an attempt to destroy the Constitutional Court's reputation as one of the last bastions of integrity in the country, or as leverage in future cases brought before the court.

"For instance, if he brokered a case for a district head, he could say that he already had the court in his pocket," he said. Mahfud added, however, that there were currently no cases before the court that were linked to Nazaruddin, who is also the Democrats' treasurer.

The chief justice revealed the alleged incident on Friday in a joint media conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Democratic Party's founder and chairman of its advisory board.

Mahfud said he had written to Yudhoyono in November regarding the case, but had agreed to stay silent on the issue if the president took action against Nazaruddin over the alleged incident.

"I didn't go to the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] because there was no evidence of bribery," he said.

"Besides, the president and I are friends. I deemed it necessary to tell him about the matter directly so that it could be solved internally. But the KPK has since called me to ask about the matter. I told them to go ahead and investigate it."

But KPK deputy chairman M. Jasin said his office would need more evidence than just Mahfud's report before it could summon anyone for questioning. "As it looks now, we don't know for sure if the money was given in relation to a [government] project, a criminal case or some other issue," he said.

He added the allegations did not prove that Janedjri and Nazaruddin had struck any sort of deal, and therefore the case could not be classified as bribery. "Besides, the money was already returned," he said. "But the KPK will investigate further."

Refly Harun, a legal expert who in the past has accused Constitutional Court judges of accepting bribes, said Mahfud might have made the comments as part of a personal agenda. He added that it was unlikely the chief justice had come forward simply for the sake of law enforcement.

Mahfud, however, denied the assertion, saying in an interview on Metro TV that he had only intended to encourage Yudhoyono to look into the case. "I didn't even go to the palace [on Friday] with the express purpose of reporting the case," he said. "We were discussing things and that's how it ended up."

Yunarto Wijaya, an analyst from political consultancy Charta Politika, said Mahfud should have done something more substantive than just report the case to the president.