Rangga Prakoso – The country's antigraft chief says he sees a conspiracy to oust him behind an ethics complaint over his handling of two high-profile graft cases.
Abraham Samad, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman, has been reported to the commission's ethics body over his alleged breach in naming two graft suspects without first receiving the approval of other KPK leaders.
He named Miranda Goeltom a suspect in a bribery case at the central bank, and legislator Angelina Sondakh in connection with a graft scandal surrounding the Southeast Asian Games.
"It's just funny if it is true that I was reported to the ethics commission," he said on Thursday. "That's just part of the efforts to get rid of me." He did not say who he thought was conspiring against him.
Abraham insisted he followed all procedures in naming the two as suspects, which he did without the presence of the anti-graft body's four deputy chairmen.
Before December, when Abraham was named chief, the KPK leadership had always appeared together to name suspects. Abraham has changed that, naming suspects himself.
Miranda is suspected of bribing lawmakers in 2004 to win a deputy governor position at Bank Indonesia. Angelina is caught up in the athletes' village scandal that is threatening to draw down several other Democratic Party officials.
Abraham also denied meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the chairman of the Democratic Party's advisory board, and board deputy chairman Marzuki Alie at the president's private residence in Cikeas, Bogor, to discuss the SEA Games case.
"Never. I don't even know where Cikeas is," he said. If the ethics commission wants to talk, Abraham said, he is ready to answer any questions. "I'm ready [to face] anyone on earth, especially when I didn't do anything wrong," he said.
Miranda and Angelina have not been detained, pending the completion of their case files by KPK investigators. "The KPK has surveillance protocols that allow us to anticipate any effort to flee or tamper with evidence," Abraham said.
Miranda was named a suspect on Jan. 26; Angelina was named one on Feb. 3.