Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Attorney General Hendarman Supandji admitted Thursday he approved the plan for his office to detain bribery suspect Artalyta Suryani following the arrest of state prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Hendarman said the deputy attorney general of intelligence, Wisnu Subroto, had initiated the plan to arrest Artalyta. He had approved Wisnu's plan on the grounds the KPK might have had a connection with Artalyta and so had chosen not to arrest her, despite detaining Urip, he said.

KPK chief Antasari Azhar had called him to inform him of Urip's arrest, Hendarman said.

"A few minutes later, I was called by Wisnu, and he asked me why we didn't arrest Artalyta, considering she had bribed Urip," he told reporters at the State Palace.

"We thought the arrest of Urip was merely a scenario made up by the KPK. But I was also worried if we were wrong about that and there was no link between the KPK and Artalyta. If so, we would have made the situation worse by arresting Artalyta, because the KPK was handling the case, not my office."

He said he therefore told Wisnu to advise Antasari before arresting Artalyta. "But then we found out the KPK, which in fact does not have any connection with Artalyta, had already arrested her at her house before the prosecutors got there."

Hendarman said he had had no idea Artalyta had been involved with senior AGO prosecutors until revelations of their "friendly" phone conversations. "This case has opened my eyes and made me realize we need thorough improvements within the AGO."

He did not offer details of concrete measures he would undertake in implementing the "thorough improvements", saying he would wait for a report from the deputy attorney general for internal affairs, MS Rahardjo. "I will take action after receiving the findings of the entire investigation," he said.

Hendarman's story was similar to statements made by Wisnu after he was questioned by the Attorney General's Office internal affairs Thursday.

Wisnu claimed he phoned Hendarman to report Urip's detention and proposed the plan to arrest Artalyta. "In the phone conversation, Pak Attorney General approved the plan," he said.

Wisnu admitted he knew Artalyta while serving as chief public prosecutor in Bandarlampung, Lampung, in 2003.

Wisnu faced 22 questions by the chief investigator, Rahardjo, during the internal inquiry. The questions were mostly related to the plan to arrest Artalyta and to Wisnu's possible involvement in the embezzlement of trillions of rupiah in Bank Indonesia liquidity support funds. He denied the allegation.

Wisnu told Rahardjo the arrest plan was "spontaneous and for the sake of justice", adding that both the parties engaged in a bribery act must be arrested. (nkn)