Jakarta – Although he has yet to officially assume his new post as Attorney General, Hendarman Supandji has already issued statements on his law enforcement priorities.
Speaking to journalists at his current office, the outgoing junior attorney general for special crimes hinted Tuesday that he would take a careful stance in handling high-profile legal cases, such as corruption cases surrounding the family of former president Soeharto.
"I will first examine the corruption allegations involving (former state minister) Yusril Ihza Mahendra and (former justice minister) Hamid Awaluddin," Hendarman said, as quoted by detik.com news portal.
"If there is no indication that corruption has occurred, (Yusril and Hamid) might have only committed procedural violations. Why should I pursue the case then?" he added.
Hendarman was referring to media reports that had put Yusril and Hamid at the center of the controversy regarding their alleged roles in helping the youngest son of Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, withdraw US$10 million from the London branch of Bank Nationale de Paris Paribas in 2004.
The case was controversial as the French bank had first asked the Indonesian government to clarify the legal status of the money prior to transferring it. And Hendarman's predecessor Abdulrahman Saleh had hinted before that the money was obtained through legal channels.
Hendarman, however, took a bold stance regarding the corruption case, which allegedly involves Soeharto himself.
"The Attorney General's Office has issued an order to permanently terminate the investigation (into Soeharto's corruption allegations). And the court has issued a ruling that legalized the office's decision, what else do you expect?" he said.
It was also during the leadership of Abdulrahman that the Attorney General's Office had planned to file a civil lawsuit against Soeharto over the alleged misuse of charitable funds.
Abdulrahman had said that they would file a lawsuit over the alleged mismanagement of one of seven charitable foundations set up and chaired by the former leader.
Due to ill health, Soeharto, 85, has never taken the stand for the corruption charges leveled against him in 2000.
These accuse him of misusing more than US$500 million from charitable foundations – separate to the billions in state assets he is also alleged to have siphoned off. The only corruption cases that Hendarman will apparently pursue are the ones involving Indonesians currently taking shelter in neighboring Singapore.
"There are 15 (Indonesian) corruption suspects residing in Singapore. They will be extradited back home," he said.
Hendarman did not name them, but confirmed that they would be extradited following the Indonesian government's recent agreement with Singapore to establish an extradition treaty between the two neighbors.
Besides the above high-profile cases, the Attorney General's Office is currently handling corruption cases surrounding the 2000 cattle imports from Australia and 2001-2003 rice imports from Vietnam. The office has named and detained former chairman of the State Logistics Agency Widjanarko Puspoyo for both cases and his brother Widjokongko for the second case.
Apart from those corruption cases, the Attorney General's Office will likely be under strong public pressure to become involved in the investigation of the 2004 murder of rights activist Munir Said Thalib. The case is currently being handled by the police.