Farouk Arnaz – After weeks of insisting they had evidence against Corruption Eradication Commission officials, the National Police late on Thursday night finally outlined its case before a riveted audience composed of top police officials, journalists and legislators.
National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said the case against Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah, deputy chiefs of the commission also known as the KPK, began as a result of investigations into Yusuf Emir Faisal, a former legislator who was believed to have accepted bribes from telecommunications company PT Masaro Radiokom.
Owned by fugitive graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo, the company is being investigated by the KPK in relation to a Forestry Ministry project in 2006. Yusuf Emir was sentenced to prison in another graft case.
Speaking at a meeting hosted by the House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing law and security affairs on Thursday night, Bambang said that after finding evidence linking Masaro to the Forestry Ministry's project during a raid at the ministry's offices, the KPK named Anggoro a suspect and slapped a travel ban on him.
"The matter of the travel ban itself contained inconsistencies," Bambang told legislators. He went on to explain that the ban was only known to Bibit and Chandra. When questioned about it, the three other KPK commissioners – former chief Antasari Azhar, Muhammad Jasin and Haryono Umar – said that they knew nothing about it, he said.
When consulted over the issuance of the travel ban, the antigraft body's legal affairs division said all five commissioners should have signed it, not just two, Bambang said.
Further investigations, he said, revealed what police believed was the true reason for the ban on Anggoro.
"We found a money trail worth Rp 17.6 billion [$1.8 million] for one of the chiefs of a state institution with the initials MK. We found a transcript of a [wiretapped] recording about this money," he said.
"We believe that Bibit and Chandra conspired with the chief of that state institution, and that they issued the travel ban against Anggoro to ensure that he never returned to Indonesia to testify against the chief of that state institution."
A Jakarta Globe source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Bambang was referring to the former Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban.
However, Bambang had to correct an earlier statement in which he questioned why the KPK only issued a travel ban on Masaro's chief director, Putra Nevo, nine months after Anggoro. Bambang acknowledged on Thursday that the ban on Nevo had been issued together with Anggoro's. He added that the police later found a Rp 350 million money trail leading back to Bibit and Chandra.
Bibit was also suspected of abuse of power, Bambang said, when he revoked a travel ban against another fugitive graft defendant, Djoko Tjandra.
He also said the police had evidence in the form of closed-circuit camera recordings to back up the testimony by the alleged case broker, Ary Muladi. Ary said he had paid Rp 6 billion in bribes to the KPK commissioners at the Bellagio Hotel and Pasar Festival Mall in South Jakarta. The police chief said that contrary to public belief and media reports, Ary had not recanted his admission.
"We are looking into a separate case involving the KPK officials, in connection with the Rp 350 million money trail which went from Putra Nevo into the officials' hands," Bambang said.
"We have the name and address of the case broker, going by the initial E, who acted as the go-between. We will arrest him to find out which officials obtained the Rp 350 million bribe."
Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, the National Police's chief of detectives who resigned on Thursday over the case in the face of intense public pressure, also addressed the hearing, holding back anger and tears to plead his innocence.
The KPK had reportedly bugged Susno's telephone over allegations that he had received Rp 10 billion in bribe money from businessman Boedi Sampoerna, who had millions of dollars stuck in a Bank Century account that he wanted to retrieve after the lender's funds had been frozen. Susno allegedly also met with Anggoro in Singapore.
"As a Muslim, I have not taken a Rp 10 billion bribe from anyone and not from anybody linked with Bank Century," he said. "I have gone to the KPK twice, challenging them to interrogate me"