Nivell Rayda, Camelia Pasandaran, April Aswadi, Heru Andrianto & Farouk Arnaz – The live broadcast on Tuesday of incriminating wiretapped conversations in the scandal that has gripped the nation for days has led to the arrest of a businessman at the core of the controversy and the release of embattled Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah.
The nation was transfixed for hours by the proceedings in the Constitutional Court, as the playback of some 270 minutes of recordings revealed that there was an intricate plot with fabricated testimonies aimed at ousting Bibit and Chandra.
Interim KPK Chairman Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said the antigraft body only wiretapped the phone of businessman Anggodo Widjojo, who is being probed in relation to a corruption case and who, along with his brother Anggoro, claimed to have been extorted by KPK members Bibit and Chandra.
Anggodo allegedly contacted several officials at the Attorney General's Office and the National Police to convince them of the claims. Both institutions have clashed with the KPK in the past.
Anggoro, now a fugitive, has been in Singapore since July 2008, while Anggodo was arrested shortly after delivering a rambling defense of himself on live national television a few hours after the tapped phone conversations were made public on Tuesday.
In a news conference on Tuesday evening, National Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said Anggodo was detained for questioning but that police had not yet decided whether to name him a suspect. Shortly after, Chandra and Bibit were released.
"This does not mean that their case is dropped, but their detention is waived following the mounting public response and in the interest of security and collective order," Nanan said.
Anggodo's voice was heard in several of the 67 conversations recorded by the KPK. In them he pushed several people, including from the police and the AGO, to incriminate the two KPK deputies.
Several individuals in the conversations also claimed that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono endorsed Anggodo's claims and the police's decision to declare Bibit and Chandra as suspects over abuse of power and extortion.
"The president wants a full investigation into the case, into why the president's name was mentioned," presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told a news conference at the State Palace. "Of course, there will be legal action, because defaming the president's name is a serious offense."
Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar issued a stronger defense of the president. "It's defamation, it's a lie. People are just selling [Yudhoyono's] name. I guarantee that he has nothing to do with this case. It's a fabrication."
Adnan Buyung Nasution, who chairs the new fact-finding team appointed by the president to look into the alleged KPK extortion case, said the team would examine claims that Yudhoyono had issued a written consent in the case. "We don't know whether it's true, anyone could make a claim like that."
Nasution added that the team would meet with all those mentioned in the recordings on Thursday, including Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga and retired senior AGO official Wisnu Subroto.
News portal Detik.com quoted another team member, Todung Mulya Lubis, as saying they would question the National Police's chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, today. Some of Anggodo's conversations played back on Tuesday were with Wisnu, while Ritonga and Susno's names were mentioned several times.
"If the recorded conversations are genuine, then the dignity of the police and the prosecutor's office has been compromised because of the implication they were involved in the alleged engineering of the case," Nanan said, adding that police would await the results of the fact-finding team before deciding what to do next.
Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said: "We are ready to work closely with the fact-finding team." He pledged to follow the team's recommendations regarding Wisnu and Ritongga.
University of Indonesia legal analyst Topo Santoso said the recordings had created tremendous public pressure."