Tempo magazine appears to have thumbed its nose at threats of legal action from the National Police.

Police had been threatening to sue the weekly magazine for the caricature on the cover of its latest edition depicting a police officer leading three piggy banks on a leash – not the story itself on the suspiciously large bank accounts of high-ranking members of the force.

Pork is forbidden for Muslims to eat, and the term pig is considered a strong insult to most Indonesians, though Tempo has denied any such links, saying the piggy banks represented the bank accounts referred to in the story and that they were ready to defend themselves in court.

In the English edition of the issue out on Thursday, the cover art has been changed but one of the piggy banks, has been moved directly in the face of an anonymous senior police officer.

The name of the article has also been changed to "Police in a Poke," which is a play on the idiom "pig in a poke." The idiom refers to a confidence trick in which a fraudster sells a victim a cat in a bag rather than the more desired pig in a bag.

Wahyu Muryadi, editor-in-chief of Tempo, downplayed suggestions that the reworked cover was a statement, saying the artwork for the two editions had been decided upon as part of one package "days ago."

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said he could not comment because he had not seen the edition.