Dian Kuswandini – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) are involved in a war of words over the facts behind the return of US$750 million to the state from AGO cases between Jan. 2004 and Nov. 2008.

ICW went to the press claiming the results from more than 3,000 corruption cases prosecuted by the AGO were questionable.

"I regret that ICW went to the press. They should have clarified the issue with the AGO before making any statement," assistant attorney general for special crimes Marwan Effendi said in Jakarta on Friday.

ICW researcher Febriansyah said he approached the AGO seeking clarification over claims the AGO had made. Marwan said the AGO had explained to ICW the evidence surrounding the return of money to the state, including from three bad lenders of Bank Mandiri.

"Bank Mandiri had mentioned that PT Lativi Media Karya, PT Kiani Kertas and PT OSO Bali Cemerlang already returned more than Rp 3 trillion," he said.

Marwan added ICW could not use data from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) as the AGO and the BPK used different definitions when describing the return of state funds.

"Funds could be forcibly removed by the nation and returned to state coffers, or could be removed and returned to the original owner," he said.