Camelia Pasandaran – Confirming what most of the public already believed, the Constitutional Court declared on Wednesday that the extortion case against Corruption Eradication Commission deputies Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto had been fabricated.

The court said the phone conversations secretly taped by the commission, known as the KPK, that had indicated a plot hatched by people within the National Police and Attorney General's Office (AGO) to fabricate charges against the KPK deputies, were valid.

"Those law enforcers who fabricated the case are animals," said Constitutional Court head judge Mahfud MD.

Police had contrived the bogus charges against the KPK officials primarily because of a fierce political rivalry between their institutions – the KPK, the police and the prosecutor's office, he said.

"It might be the police, or the prosecutors, or the judge. God has said that those with heart who fail to use it to understand the truth; those with eyes who fail to see the truth; and those with ears who don't listen to the truth, are animals," Mahfud said.

He added that he would speak about "animals" during the religious day celebrations at the University of Indonesia on Friday.

The court made its declaration during a ruling which annuls an article in the KPK law governing the automatic dismissal of KPK commissioners tried with a criminal offense.