Muninggar Sri Saraswati & Nivell Rayda – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will risk "tarnishing his credibility" if he allows the National Police and the Attorney General's Office to press ahead with the prosecution of two antigraft deputy commissioners, a leading political analyst said on Wednesday.

Yudhoyono assembled a fact-finding team to find out whether the two law-enforcement agencies had any case against Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra M Hamzah, the suspended officials of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The team has recommended that charges of abuse of power and extortion be dropped against Bibit and Chandra, but the police and the AGO insisted there was enough evidence to prosecute the commissioners.

Rocky Gersung, a law expert from the University of Indonesia, said Yudhoyono couldn't ignore the recommendations of the team he himself assembled.

"If he does that, people might see the formation of the team as nothing more than a strategy to appease a disappointed public," Rocky said. "The team had already forwarded its initial findings to the president, and his cabinet must now carry out the team's recommendation."

Rocky said Yudhoyono would be making the biggest gamble of his political career if the case went to trial.

"Now if the police and the AGO would lose in such a scenario, as the fact-finding team had predicted, it's not only their credibility that will be tarnished but the president's as well," Rocky said. "If they win, would that appease the public, especially since the recorded conversations [of the plot to undermined the KPK] is still fresh in the public's minds."

Febri Diansyah of the Indonesian Corruption Watch said she was concerned that public outrage would intensify if the police and the AGO insisted on their claims.

"The president, as the supervisor of both institutions, should be able to order the police chief and the attorney general to carry out the recommendations made by his team," Febri said.

She added that if the case ever made it to court, "people who have been sick about this will not hesitate to go to the streets and express their demands. And the president cannot ignore this."

Airlangga Pribadi, a political expert from Airlangga University in Surabaya, said he believed the case needed to be settled in court.

The police has insisted that it would not withdraw its charges against Bibit and Chandra because if they did, "it will be like admitting they made a mistake," Airlangga said. The same thing goes with the prosecutors, he added.

"Let a judge decide. Although it may not please the people, it will save the face of the police, the prosecutors and the president," Airlangga said.