President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono remains cautious about stepping into the antigraft breach, despite recommendations by his own fact-finding team that two antigraft deputies be cleared of all charges.
The recommendation led Monday to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) announcing it would return the dossier on suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Chandra M. Hamzah to the police for lack of evidence. The dossier of Bibit Samad Rianto, another KPK deputy is still under review of the AGO.
The police have since said they would revise the dossier to take the two to trial on charges of bribery, extortion and abuse of power.
Yudhoyono's only response was to urge prosecutors and the police to follow up on the team's interim report.
The team cited for its recommendation the lack any evidence showing that an alleged bribe of
Rp 5.1 billion from businessman Anggodo Widjojo had been paid to Bibit and Chandra to halt an investigation into the KPK's investigation of alleged graft implicating Anggodo's older brother, Anggoro Widjojo.
They also pointed out key witness Ari Muladi, a middleman used by Anggodo in the deal, had handed over the money to another person, Julianto, and not to the KPK deputies, as alleged by the police.
Both Bibit and Chandra have denied ever knowing Ari or Julianto, or receiving the funds.
“The President is not authorized to halt an ongoing legal process," said Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, to questions about why Yudhoyono had not stepped in, after submitting the team's recommendation to the latter at the Presidential Palace on Monday night.
“That’s why he's asked the police chief and the attorney general to respond to the team's interim report.”
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said Tuesday at a press conference the police would gather more evidence to meet the AGO's demands for a watertight case that could be prosecuted in court, after the latter returned Chandra's dossier.
“We'll fix the dossiers by questioning more witnesses,” he said.
Also on Tuesday, Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said at a hearing at the House of Representatives that he respected the team’s interim report, but that the AGO would take Bibit and Chandra to court once the dossiers were complete.
“We're just waiting for the police to revise the dossiers,” he said.
At the same House hearing, legislators from House Commission III on legal affairs questioned the fact-finding team’s recommendations, which they said went beyond their authority.
“The AGO has the authority to assess whether facts included in the dossiers are acceptable or not, and it is up to the court to decide whether a defendant is guilty or not,” said deputy commission chairman Azis Syamsuddin, from the Golkar Party.
“Why would the team make a statement to the media about their judgement in an ongoing legal process? This is something we want clarified.”
Legislator Fahri Hamzah, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), denounced the team's report as biased, saying it had no authority to intervene in the legal process.
Ruhut Sitompul, a legislator from Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, called on all parties to accept the independent team's interim report because it was mandated by the President and its eight members had “worked hard with transparency”.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/11/11/sby-yet-speak-out-interim-report.html
No comments:
Post a Comment