Jakarta – In what is seen here as another blow to the Indonesian justice system, the Attorney General's Office admitted that five state prosecutors are suspected of taking a 12 billion rupiah (S$2.4 million) bribe to conceal evidence. The five are currently under investigation by the A-G's Office's Internal Affairs Division for their actions in a graft case involving the former finance manager of Jakarta-based PT Aerowisata Catering Service.

Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman confirmed that an internal investigation was underway and that the five were being questioned. "Yes it's true, but we're still awaiting further reports," he said on Wednesday when asked about the investigation into the five prosecutors who are still active at the Directorate of Special Crimes.

The graft case in which the five prosecutors were allegedly involved centres on the reported swindling of some rupiah 28 billion from PT Aerowisata's account by then finance manager Kosasih.

The Indonesia Reform Advocacy Institute (LARI), in a report handed to the A-G's Office on Monday alleged that the five prosecutors seized several of Kosasih's properties earlier this year as evidence, despite the fact that their ownership was not in his name.

The seized properties, worth some 12 billion rupiah, included an apartment in East Jakarta, a plot of land in the Pulogebang area, an automobile showroom in Tangerang with five Mercedes-Benz cars, Kosasih's own private car and several houses located in Jakarta, Bogor and Bandung.

The report, signed by LARI chairman Edi Soemarsono, alleged that the prosecutors then sold off the evidence and divided the spoils. According to the report, the five also told Kosasih to flee – thus hampering the case. Mr Edi claimed that part of the information in the report was testimony from Kosasih's wife, Betty.

One of the five prosecutors being investigated, who spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted that there had been a "bribe" to impede the investigation. But he claimed that the seizure and eventual liquidation of assets was only conducted by the head of the prosecutors team, while the other four only signed the seizure notification.

"I only met Kosasih once during the first questioning... Moreover, I never saw the seized properties and was never involved in the seizure plan," he said.