Heru Andriyanto – An anti-graft group on Friday accused the Attorney General's Office of being willing to negotiate with corruption suspects after the AGO declared publicly that suspects who return stolen money would not be detained during an investigation.

The Indonesia Corruption Watch, or ICW, said the controversial policy was counterproductive to the country's anti-graft campaign because it would allow suspects to negotiate and could possibly result in the dropping of their case.

"In our records, there are several cases in which suspects returned the stolen money and their cases have still not been brought to trial," said Febri Diansyah, a law researcher with the group.

Putting graft suspects in detention is an important part of the campaign as it could serve as "shock therapy" to corrupt officials, he said, citing the reason the office's controversial policy must be revoked.

In an official statement, the group urged the AGO to follow the lead of the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, which detains suspects immediately after accusations of graft have been officially filed.

Whether or not a suspect is detained should not depend on the repayment of stolen funds, as the Criminal Code has clear regulations about that, the ICW said.

A suspect may avoid detention if law enforcers are convinced that he or she will not repeat the crime, destroy evidence or flee justice. "Never negotiate with graft suspects and revoke the policy that offers preferential treatment to them," the group told the AGO.

Marwan Effendy, deputy attorney general for special crimes, said the AGO office would not change its mind regarding the treatment of suspects.

"What makes ICW think they have the right to tell us what to do?" Marwan told reporters on Friday. He said the policy of letting suspects go free applied only to those who were involved in corruption cases "by accident."

"For instance, a suspect in bad loan case who is unable to repay. If he somehow managed to repay the debt during the investigation, we would consider letting him go free," said the prosecutor.

Even if the suspect is not detained during the investigation, the legal proceedings against him continue, he said, citing an article of the 1999 anti-graft law which indicates that returning stolen assets doesn't blot out the crime.

"But for those who committed a 'pure crime,' such as stealing state money or launching bogus projects with state funding, they will be detained," he said.