Jakarta – The Judicial Commission plans to take legal action in response to the controversial acquittal of Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Muhammad by Bandung Corruption Court on Tuesday.

"We saw indications from the beginning that this case would be won by the defendant, which is why we first need to conduct a thorough investigation of the ruling before we can conclude anything," Judicial Commission spokesman Asep Rahmat Fajar said Tuesday.

"We plan to coordinate with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as well in doing this," Asep said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. While he declined to mention when the commission would carry out its investigation, he promised that the result would be made available soon.

The court found Mochtar not guilty of multiple graft charges leveled against him by prosecutors from the KPK. The prosecutors had demanded the court sentence Mochtar to 12 years in prison and pay fines of Rp 300 million (US$33,452) for his alleged involvement in graft.

The four cases include an alleged bribe paid to a selection team for the Adipura city cleanliness award, as well as an "approval fee" paid to Bekasi councilors to speed up the approval of the Bekasi budget for 2010. The approval fee was allegedly equal to 2 percent of the total city budget, worth more than Rp 1.6 trillion.

Mochtar was also alleged to have stolen Rp 639 million from the 2009 Bekasi budget, money he apparently used to pay off his debts to the Bekasi branch of Bank Jabar.