Farouk Arnaz – National Police detectives on Wednesday again questioned Chandra M Hamzah, one of two suspended deputy chairmen of Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission who have been named as suspects in a case of alleged bribery and abuse of power.
The questioning occurred after the Attorney General's Office returned Chandra's dossier to the police for further investigation.
Police detective Sr. Comr. A.J Benny Mokolalu told the Jakarta Globe that further questioning was required because police officers had seized more evidence from the office of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) this week.
National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri on Monday said he was confident that his detectives would complete the case file on Chandra in the near future.
The police on Friday released a key suspect in the case, Ary Muladi, who had initially been arrested on suspicion of fraud, extortion and document forgery, after detectives failed to finalize his case file.
While in custody, however, Ary reportedly told police that he had never actually handed over bribes to either Chandra or Bibit Samad Rianto, the other KPK deputy chairman suspected of bribery. Ary had originally claimed to have given money to the two KPK deputies.
The case revolves around businessman Anggoro Wijaya, a graft suspect who is currently on the run, and his brother, Anggodo, who allegedly recruited Ary to pay off the KPK deputies in order to allow Anggoro to flee the country.
Police investigators have alleged that Chandra and Bibit revoked a travel ban against Anggoro to allow him to flee the country, and later reimposed the ban again after Anggoro had settled safely in Singapore.
Anggoro is wanted by the KPK over a Ministry of Forestry corruption case related to his company, PT Masaro Radiokom.
Ary was suspected of directing payments from Anggoro to the KPK deputies of $404,000 and 124,000 Singapore dollars ($89,000). He later told police interrogators that he had handed the money over to a man identified only as Yulianto, a businessman from Surabaya.
Detectives have reportedly searched for Yulianto, but have not yet dismissed the possibility that he may have been fabricated by Ary to confuse investigators.