Jakarta – As new information emerges about the links between bribery suspect Artalyta Suryani and top officials at the Attorney General's Office, more questions are being asked about the commitment of prosecutors to the war on corruption.
Pressure is mounting for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to expand its investigation into the bribery case involving Artalyta to target the AGO.
"I am tired of this. The KPK must summon Attorney General Hendarman Supandji about the court findings," said Emerson Yuntho of Indonesian Corruption Watch.
During Artalyta's trial on Wednesday, KPK prosecutors presented taped phone conversations between the businesswoman and then deputy attorney general for special crimes Kemas Yahya Rahman, and between Artalyta and the deputy attorney general for state administration, Untung Udji Santoso.
Artalyta confirmed the conversations, in which she sought advice from the two senior AGO officials on how to deal with the KPK.
The recordings were presented as evidence against Artalyta, who is charged with bribing state prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan, who led an investigation into businessman Sjamsul Nursalim, the former director of Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, in relation to the embezzlement of Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) funds. Artalyta reportedly has ties to Sjamsul.
Emerson said the court findings should raise questions about Attorney General Hendarman's commitment to cleaning up the prosecutors' corps, which is portrayed as an institution riddled with corruption in the latest UNDP human development report released Thursday.
"Most prosecutors found guilty of corruption have only received administrative sanctions.... No more than that," he said. The taped conversations between Artalyta and the AGO officials, Emerson said, could serve as an entryway to widen the investigation into corruption in the Attorney General's Office.
In response to the revelations that have come out in court, Hendarman said the AGO had yet to decide on any actions against Kemas and Untung. "We will continue monitoring this case. The process is not yet complete," Hendarman said.
He denied allegations the AGO had protected Artalyta. He said officials under him planned to arrest Artalyta following the arrest of Urip by the Corruption Eradication Commission.
"We were thinking that Artalyta's case was an extortion or a bribery case. If it was a bribery case, Artalyta had to be arrested too. But the KPK eventually arrested her also, so we dropped our plan. There was no scenario to protect her," he said.
Lawmaker Aziz Syamsuddin of House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs said the AGO should look at the Artalyta case as an opportunity to launch internal reforms. "The AGO must evaluate whether there were conflicts of interest in the case," Azis said.
Emerson urged the Corruption Eradication Commission to take over the BLBI case from the Attorney General's Office and resume the suspended investigation into the alleged embezzlement of the liquidity support funds. The attorney general promised to reopen the investigation if it was proven its suspension was related to the bribery case. (alf)