Heru Andriyanto – Police and prosecutors have expressed determination to launch an all out-war against so-called case brokers, or middlemen, in legal proceedings but they are struggling to better-name their enemies.
"This time, our determination against case brokers is not lip service," National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri claimed during a recent hearing with the House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs.
"But I disagree with the use of the acronym 'Markus' for case brokers because it is a religious name, so instead I prefer the term 'Cakus,'?" he said, referring to 'calo kasus' or case broker.
Attorney General Hendarman Supandji proposed his own acronym to identify case brokers. "I choose 'Cakil' to describe them. In the Javanese puppet show, Cakil always shows up after midnight and gets killed by Arjuna. We too must get rid of Cakils from law-enforcement agencies." Cakil is the name of a demon King.
Their remarks came after a series of scandals that put police and the Attorney General's Office under fire for being highly vulnerable to the presence of case brokers, who act as middlemen between defendants and attorneys, facilitating bribes to negotiate a lower sentence or release for defendants.
The latest evidence of intervention by case brokers was the recordings in which senior police officers and the AGO discussed an alleged plot to bring down two deputy chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
This was the second time the AGO was rocked by humiliating tapes of phone conversations between top prosecutors and case brokers. Last year an AGO official took a $660,000 bribe from businesswoman Artalyta Suryani, who sought the termination of a major embezzlement case involving tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim.
Artalyta was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail – not because of actions by the AGO but because the KPK eventually prosecuted her.
Hendarman said it was a daunting task to keep case brokers away from his office. "We may ask prosecutors to stay away from brokers, but those people will not give up easily. They will approach the wives, sons, siblings, parents or any other relatives of our prosecutors," he told lawmakers.
The AGO has been sensitive about the issue recently. A member of the House was arrested by prosecutors earlier this month for a past graft case after he openly criticized the AGO for becoming a safe haven for case brokers.
Meanwhile, police have refrained from taking legal action against businessman Anggodo Widjojo, who was heard in the recordings apparently discussing with police and prosecutors how to fabricate testimony against two KPK officials, Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samat Rianto.
Three more people were alleged to have acted as case brokers in the case – Ary Muladi, Eddy Sumarsono and a shadowy figure identified as Yulianto.
Case brokers are often insiders. In the 2006 bribery scandal at the Supreme Court, Malem Pagi Sinuhadji and Sriyadi, two clerks, were sentenced to three years each for taking bribes from businessman Probosutedjo, the stepbrother of the late president Suharto, and attempting to influence the court's verdict in an embezzlement case involving the businessman.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Harifin Tumpa admitted last week that case brokers infested every stage of legal proceedings.
A prosecutor was fired earlier this year, for example, after he demanded a sentence of only one year in jail for a man accused of possessing 470 ecstasy pills, a crime punishable by death. The panel of judges at the West Jakarta District Court accepted the demand in a hearing that ran for only two days.
The prosecutor, Sultoni, and the judges were never charged with bribery despite allegations that they had accepted Rp 5 billion ($530,000) from the defendant.
At he latest hearing between top law enforcement officials and lawmakers, the House commission found itself unable to properly name case brokers.
"Broker is a profession recognized by the law, as in the equity markets or auto trade. Using it in a negative sense would run counter to the existing law," said one legislator. "The word 'mafia' to describe case brokers is inappropriate because it doesn't come from Bahasa Indonesia," said another.
The 'very important' subject turned into a heated debate as lawmakers, the police chief, the attorney general and the acting KPK chairman tried to provide case brokers with a more appropriate name or acronym. The meeting lasted until midnight.