M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Former attorney general Abdul Rahman Saleh on Monday denied meddling in his replacement's push to bring former president Soeharto to trial for corruption.
Abdul Rahman, who was replaced on May 7 by Hendarman Supandji, said he never asked Hendarman not to continue the investigation into Soeharto.
"What I said in my speech during the transfer ceremony was that it is simply pointless to build a corruption case against Soeharto as the highest legal authority, the Supreme Court, has ruled that he is not fit to stand trial," Abdul Rahman told The Jakarta Post in an interview.
He said he asked Hendarman to continue building a civil case against the former strongman.
Soeharto stepped down on May 21, 1998, following massive riots in Jakarta and other cities..
"Because it is useless to pursue a criminal corruption case, I asked him (Hendarman) to file a civil case, which is something I have been working on for a long time," Abdul Rahman said.
He was responding to a statement by human rights monitoring group Imparsial, which claimed Abdul Rahman asked Hendarman to drop Soeharto's case. This claim was based on Abdul Rahman's speech during the ceremony earlier this month.
Imparsial accused Abdul Rahman of lacking the courage and smarts to investigate high-profile corruption cases.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono replaced Abdul Rahman after two-and-a-half years in office. In late May last year, the Attorney General's Office dropped all criminal charges against Soeharto because it said the former president was too ill to stand trial.
After dropping the criminal charges, the AGO said it would pursue a civil case against Soeharto to hold him accountable for policies that caused the state trillions of rupiah in losses. The civil case, according to the AGO, would focus on the abuse of Soeharto's numerous cash-rich foundations.
A corruption trial for Soeharto opened in August 2000. However, the former president never appeared in court, with a team of doctors declaring him too ill to stand trial.
According to the medical assessment, a series of strokes had left Soeharto with permanent brain damage. The Supreme Court in 2001 ruled the Attorney General's Office would have to help Soeharto recover sufficiently to stand trial before it could pursue the corruption case against him.
Meanwhile, police detained at least five people Monday during a demonstration to mark the nine-year anniversary of Soeharto's resignation, at Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta.
"We did not arrest them, we just separated them from the crowd in order to prevent further chaos at the demonstration," said Gambir Police chief Comr. Apollo Sinambela.
He said they were separated from the crowd after becoming involved in shouting matches with policemen deployed at the rally. Apollo said apart from that one small incident, the rally from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. was orderly and peaceful.