Heru Andriyanto & Farouk Arnaz – The National Police, seemingly unable to find enough evidence to link two suspended antigraft commission deputies to bribery charges, have fallen back on posing "silly questions" as they try to build up an abuse of power case against the two, a lawyer for the deputies said on Wednesday.
"My clients were initially charged with bribery and extortion, but during the recent interrogation, police only raised a few questions pertaining to those charges," said Taufik Basari, a lawyer for suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto. The two were named suspects in September.
"For two separate days, [Chandra] was asked 91 questions and do you know what? Only three of them were directed to the bribery charge," Taufik, who said he accompanied Chandra during the questioning, told the Jakarta Globe.
"And those three questions lacked substance, such as, 'Do you know Ary Muladi?" or 'Did you ever meet him at Pasar Festival?' Things like that," the lawyer said.
Police have also alleged that the two deputies misused their power by lifting a travel ban against graft suspects Anggoro Widjojo and Joko Tjandra to allow them to flee the country. But Taufik also said that the police's case for abuse of power was not strong.
"The travel ban policy is part of the internal procedures of the commission and the police do not have the authority to investigate any suspected administrative violations in another state agency," he said. "When a procedural violation does harm to any individual, the victim may challenge it in a pretrial motion, but certainly this is not a crime that needs police intervention."
He said the police had been inconsistent in the case, telling the media they had strong evidence to charge both deputies under the anticorruption law. The fact was, he said, they hadn't found any evidence to support their claims.
Taufik said that during questioning related to the abuse of power charge, Chandra and Bibit were shown a pile of documents and asked to verify them one by one, in what was a time-consuming activity.
"The questions were as silly as the previous ones," he said. "[For example], my clients were shown a letter and asked how many people had signed it, even though the officer himself could see the letter had only one signature."
Police have repeatedly said they would prefer to cross-examine the evidence in court, and have maintained that the bribery and abuse of power charges still stand.
The case took a new turn recently when a transcript from a wire-tapped phone conversation began circulating in the media. The transcript indicated that several prosecutors, witnesses in the case and police officers may have conspired to bring down the two deputies, and indirectly the KPK.
But police remained confident in their case, saying on Wednesday they "would not be fooled" by widespread media reports of a recording, and denying any attempt to fabricate the case.
"Let's see if the recording is authentic. The source of the taped conversation remains unclear," said Brig. Gen. Sulistyo Ishak, a spokesman for the National Police. "We'll just keep concentrating on completing the documents against the suspects."
"We don't live in a fantasy world and we won't be fooled by rumors about a transcript," he added.
Police have handed the dossiers on the two deputies to the Attorney General's Office. The charges are based on the anti-corruption law.
Marwan Effendy, the AGO deputy for special crimes, said in a text message to the Jakarta Globe that his office only made sure that the legal facts conformed to the articles violated.
"If the legal facts – or in other words the charges – are supported by evidence, we will approve the dossiers and proceed to the prosecution stage," he said.