Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Calls are mounting for antigraft investigators not to cease in expanding their probe into a corruption scandal that a witness claims reaches as high as the nation's president.
Bambang Soesatyo, a member of the House of Representatives, said on Sunday that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) should not stop at the suspects already named in the case centering on the awarding of a lucrative government contract for importing beef.
He said that all the allegations arising from the ongoing trials of the two main suspects in the case must be followed up on, and all the individuals implicated must be investigated.
The scandal, for which Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, the former president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and his aide, Ahmad Fathanah, are standing trial, stormed back into the public spotlight last week with witness testimony suggesting that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono might have been implicated.
In clarifying the subject of a wiretapped conversation he had with Fathanah, witness Ridwan Hakim told the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court on Friday that Sengman, a person referred to in their conversation, was a courier for the president.
Sengman was alleged to have delivered Rp 40 billion ($3.7 million) to a man referred to as Engkong, said to be Ridwan's father, Hilmi Aminuddin.
While presidential staff and members of Yudhoyono's Democratic Party have rushed to refute any allegation linking the president to the corruption scandal or to the mystery figure Sengman, critics say the protestations are disingenuous.
Rizal Ramli, a former finance minister, said it was well-known that there was a businessman named Sengman in Yudhoyono's inner circle.
"He's the businessman who was the first person to finance SBY's foray into politics," Rizal was quoted as saying by Kompas.com. "So they're very close. Why is the State Palace denying it?"
He said Sengman hailed from South Sumatra but did not elaborate on what business he was in or how much he was alleged to have contributed to Yudhoyono.
This is the second time that people apparently close to the president have been named in the case. The first person mentioned was Wisnu Agung Prasetya, an assistant to Andi Arief, the president's adviser on disaster management.