Ulma Haryanto& Anita Rachman – He flew to Singapore and Colombia, to meet Muhammad Nazaruddin, but apparently there were still questions on Monday as to whether high-profile lawyer O.C. Kaligis was indeed the graft suspect's attorney.
On Sunday, Kaligis complained that even though he was a legal representative of Nazaruddin, he was denied access at the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) penitentiary in Depok, West Java and not allowed to see his client.
Even when he flew to the Colombian capital, Bogota, after Nazaruddin's arrest, Kaligis said the Indonesian ambassador denied him access to his client.
But according to Johan Budi, the spokesman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Nazaruddin had not legally appointed Kaligis as his lawyer.
"Kaligis does have a letter, but the letter was not signed by Nazaruddin," Johan said on Monday morning. "Nazaruddin has not yet decided which lawyer will represent him."
Johan denied the KPK was intervening in Nazaruddin's choice of lawyer. "Nazaruddin is free to decide. If he has a problem with finances and cannot pay, then the state will provide a lawyer for him."
Johan also rejected allegations the KPK had banned people from visiting the disgraced lawmaker. "We're trying to protect his safety, nothing else," he said. "Nazaruddin gave us the names of five or six people who are allowed to visit him and all of them are family. He does not wish to meet anyone else."
The runaround ended on Monday afternoon when Kaligis, along with a number of lawmakers – none of them Democrats besides Nazaruddin's cousin, M. Nasir – were allowed a 15-minute meeting with the suspect in the Brimob lockup.
Speaking earlier during a meeting with House of Representatives leaders in Senayan, an angry Kaligis said he was the main legal representative for Nazaruddin, and any claims otherwise were incorrect. "The president will surely be very angry if he finds out about this. I will write a letter to the president," he said.
The lawyer also stated that he did not understand why the investigators didn't allow him to meet Nazaruddin and give legal advice to his client.
"I am not a politician, I just want to defend Nazaruddin. I don't know about [deals] with political parties, but I want these all to be revealed," he said, claiming that since the beginning Nazaruddin's case had been manipulated.
A number of questions had been raised over the past few days about the unusual manner by which Nazaruddin was brought home from Bogota, and his lack of access to legal advice.
Fahri Hamzah, deputy chairman of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, said on Monday that he suspected a KPK plot to save certain people from involvement in the case.
The first signal, said Fahri, was Nazaruddin's transfer from Colombia by chartered jet, which he said was arguably lacking transparency. The second sign, he said, was Nazaruddin's isolation from family and legal advisors. "The game to fabricate the case has begun," the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker said.
Meanwhile, Indonesia Corruption Watch coordinator Danang Widoyoko suggested Kaligis could be playing a political game himself.
The antigraft activist questioned why the lawyer sought to be accompanied by several lawmakers to the prison to meet Nazaruddin, and added that it raised suspicions that these figures might intervene in the case.
Danang said it was not only Democrat members who had an interest in silencing Nazaruddin's accusations, but that there were also lawmakers from other parties who were involved in projects with Nazaruddin. "Because if all Nazaruddin's cases were revealed, that would also threaten other corrupt lawmakers," Danang said.
[Additional reporting by Febriamy Hutapea.]