Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Attorney General Hendarman Supandji announced Saturday that prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan, who was jailed for 20 years for taking bribes, was acting alone in the scandal and that a criminal probe into the bribery roles of his superiors lacked evidence.
The decision quickly sparked strong criticisms from anti-graft activists and legal experts, who said it had offended the public's sense of justice.
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has ignored a lot of evidence uncovered during Urip's trial which had pointed to the involvement of many high-ranking officials from the office, they said.
"The examination by the AGO's internal affairs has found that Urip was acting alone," Hendarman was quoted as saying by Antara news agency after addressing a seminar at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java.
The dismissal of Kemas Yahya Rahman as assistant attorney general for special crimes and Muhammad Salim as director of investigation were only intended to defend the AGO's credibility to the public following the bribery scandal, he said. "They have nothing to do with the case," Hendarman said.
He claimed there had been no material evidence showing a transfer of funds to other parties in relation to the Urip case. "So the probe cannot be expanded to other prosecutors," he added.
Hendarman also cited the court's verdict against Urip that no other officials had shared the bribes.
But Andi Bachtiar, one of the judges handling the Urip case, said the evidence that had been presented at the trial had clearly shown Kemas' and Salim's involvement. "That's why in the court ruling I opened up the possibility for KPK to charge other prosecutors besides Urip," he said.
Prominent legal expert Frans Hendra Winarta slammed the AGO for the announcement, saying Hendarman only wanted to clear his office's image after the humiliating scandal that had destroyed its credibility.
"It's really an offense to the sense of justice. The public must have known from the trial that other high-ranking prosecutors were involved in the case because Urip couldn't have acted alone," he told The Jakarta Post.
Frans said he had anticipated such a decision since the AGO simply could not make a fair investigation of itself.
The probe, he added, should have been carried out independently by a team comprised of members from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and representatives from civil society groups in addition to those from the AGO. "Only then can we say it is a fair examination," Frans said.
The Corruption Court sentenced Urip to 20 years in prison in September for taking a US$660,000 bribe from businesswoman Artalyta Suryani to drop a major embezzlement case against fugitive tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim. The verdict was upheld Thursday by the High Corruption Court.
Urip had led an AGO team to investigate the embezzlement of Rp 28.4 trillion (US$2,2 billion) disbursed under Bank Indonesia's liquidity support (BLBI) scheme to Sjamsul, former owner of liquidated Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI).
On Feb. 29, 2008, the AGO dropped two BLBI cases against Sjamsul and tycoon Anthony Salim, citing a lack of evidence. Two days later, the KPK arrested Urip for accepting the bribe from Artalyta who had been linked to Sjamsul.
During the Urip trial, it was heard from a taped conversation that Artalyta had talked to a woman believed to be Sjamsul's wife. Artalyta had said: "Please Bu, we've got a shortage as we need more for all the attorney general deputies and their secretaries because we haven't given them anything". Sjamsul's wife replied that she had the money available.
In another taped conversation, Kemas Yahya spoke with Artalyta, informing her of the AGO's decision to drop the Sjamsul case. Artalyta said she had made the money available.