Farouk Arnaz, Muninggar Sri Saraswati & Nivell Rayda – The Attorney General Office and the National Police appeared set to defy public opinion and that of a presidential fact-finding team, by forging ahead with efforts to indict suspended Corruption Eradication Commission deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah.
Marwan Effendy, the deputy attorney general for special crimes, said a decision would be made on Monday whether to formally indict the commissioners for abuse of power and extortion, despite the fact-finding team's declaration that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges.
Marwan's statement came a day after the National Police had submitted their dossiers of the cases to prosecutors, who had already twice rejected the police cases for lacking evidence. Marwan indicated that the AGO would again return Bibit's dossier for improvement.
The stance of the National Police was even clearer, with spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna telling reporters that police would play video recordings in court as evidence of several purported meetings between alleged case broker Ary Muladi, Bibit and Ade Rahardja, the antigraft commission's deputy director of investigations. "The quicker [we get to court], the better," he said.
Nanan's statement came a day after Ary challenged the existence of the videotapes, denying that he had ever met with Bibit and Ade, let alone at the location or on the dates alleged by police.
Bibit is a retired police inspector general, while Ade, who has not been charged, is the most senior police officer of the 126 assigned to the commission, also known at the KPK. Bibit has also challenged the validity of one of the videos, saying that he was at a meeting in Peru at the time.
"You can check my passport and with immigration. I have pictures taken with Peruvian government officials, my picture even appeared in a local newspaper," he said. "We'll let the judges decide, I can't wait to go to court."
Police say other video recording show a meeting between Ary and Ade at the Bellagio Residence's Lemon Tree Restaurant in August, and a meeting between Ary, Ade and the former KPK director of investigations, Bambang Widaryatmo, who has since been recalled to National Police headquarters.
In a document obtained earlier by the Jakarta Globe, police outlined their belief that the video recordings and evidence they managed to accumulate told of a deal related to a case involving fugitive graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo, who was being investigated by the KPK in relation to a Forestry Ministry project involving his company, PT Masaro Radiokom.
The document also said "The one who could arrange meetings to deal with the problem, pursued doggedly by the KPK, was Ary Muladi."
On Thursday, Ary acknowledged to reporters that he had once met with Anggoro's brother, Anggodo, at the Menara Peninsula Hotel in West Jakarta.
The police document claims that Anggoro channeled Rp 5.15 billion ($545,000) through Ary to a number of KPK officials after the commission had raided the offices of his company in June 2008. However, Ary has since withdrawn his testimony. Bibit, Ade, Bambang and Chandra have denied all the allegations.