Bagus B.T. Saragih, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) claimed Sunday it had enough resources to prosecute all graft cases amid a controversial attempt by the government to scrap the antigraft body's prosecutorial authorities.
Junior attorney general for internal monitoring Marwan Effendy said the more than 8,000 active prosecutors in the country were capable enough of handling the "only" 2,000 corruption cases a year.
"There are 120,000 other cases a year. Still, it is not beyond our capacity because a prosecutor can handle up to five 'difficult' cases a year while most general crime cases are 'light'," Marwan told The Jakarta Post.
Marwan's statement was made in response to controversial plans to end the prosecutorial authority of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). This means all prosecution would be the authority of prosecutors' offices, a return to the justice system before the establishment of the KPK in 2003.
Unlike the National Police, the KPK is granted the authority to prosecute cases probed by its own investigators.
Attorney General Basrief Arief said Friday he welcomed the proposal. "It is very feasible. We can sit together to discuss it further."
In a draft by the government to amend the anticorruption law, the KPK has been ruled out as a law enforcement body granted the authority to prosecute cases.
The bill has already been lambasted for incorporating articles that reduces legal penalties for corruption convicts and allows graft convicts who caused state losses of less than Rp 25 million (US$2,875) to avoid serving any time in prison.
At the same time, members of the House of Representatives' law and human rights commission have also discussed changes to the 2002 KPK Law, which might severely weaken the antigraft body.
The revisions to both the anticorruption law and the KPK law are part of this year's legislative agenda.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said the revision to the KPK law should clarify that the KPK's authority was limited to conducting investigations. "Let them focus on graft prevention. In many countries, the prosecution is handled by a single institution," she said.
Eva's statement was echoed by Marwan, who suggested that Indonesia "adopts the principle of a single prosecution system".
He said the KPK was initially granted prosecutorial authority to reduce the time needed to share case files between investigators and prosecutors.
If the antigraft body has its prosecutorial authority lifted, the corruption case files must go to the AGO before a suspect can be tried, similar to other criminal cases processed by the police.
Activists claim the move is part of efforts to limit the KPK's power. "The government and lawmakers are collaborating to undermine the KPK, their common enemy," Indonesia Corruption Watch's (ICW) Febri Diansyah said, adding that the move was a major setback in the country's antigraft fight.
KPK chairman Busyro Muqoddas has repeatedly reiterated that the current KPK law and existing legal mechanisms on corruption cases adopted by the commission were sufficient. "We think the KPK law should not be revised," he said.