Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said Tuesday he simply followed orders in the decision to drop criminal charges against several delinquent debtors from the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) program.

He said his office implemented the directive of Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in March.

Abdul Rahman said his task was to find the legal basis for the ministers' decision, which would exempt eight debtors from prosecution in return for the repayment of misused funds.

"I met with the coordinating minister for the economy and the finance minister who said the alleged misappropriators of BLBI funds were willing to provide financial settlement of their case before the end of the year, on the condition that any criminal charges are dropped. I said, 'alright, we will find a legal basis for it'," he said.

He emphasized he only agreed to it if the BLBI debtors did not cause losses to the state. "But if the Attorney General's Office finds the debtors guilty of stealing funds, then we will pursue an investigation of them," he said.

The decision has been criticized as overly lenient toward debtors. It harks back to the release and discharge policy of the previous administration of Megawati Soekarnoputri, which freed major debtors from prosecution in exchange for the settlement of their debts.