House told to question Marzuki over Baligate<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Experts on Monday called for an investigation
\ninto reports that officials from the Attorney General's Office,
\nincluding Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, had taken bribes to
\nacquit prime suspect Djoko S. Tjandra from all charges.<\/p>\n
Interviewed by The Jakarta Post, coordinator of Indonesian
\nCorruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki, lawyer Trimedya Panjaitan
\nand economist Sri Mulyani stressed the need for the House of
\nRepresentatives (DPR) to call upon Marzuki to clarify the bribery
\nallegations.<\/p>\n
\"The DPR should call upon Marzuki to examine how much truth
\nthere is in these rumors. If there are indications (of
\ncorruption), the case must be prosecuted by the police,\" Teten
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"Should the police find evidence that the Attorney General, or
\nany of his officials, took bribes to free Djoko, the officials
\nconcerned should be asked to resign.\"<\/p>\n
The bribery allegations were brought to the attention of the
\nmedia by a number of former prosecutors recently.<\/p>\n
As reported earlier, the South Jakarta District Court freed
\nDjoko on a legal technicality and the prosecution's failure to
\nback up its case with witnesses.<\/p>\n
Djoko is a director of trading and investment firm PT Era Giat
\nPrima (EGP), which had taken over Bank Bali's interbank loans
\nfrom closed Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI). Djoko was
\ncharged with improperly influencing certain officials, including
\nsuspended Bank Indonesia (central bank) governor Sjahril Sabirin,
\nto disburse Rp 904 billion in repayment of the loans.<\/p>\n
Separately, lawyer Trimedya Panjaitan condemned Marzuki for
\nasking the National Ombudsman Committee to investigate the
\nbribery allegations, instead of preparing a solid indictment
\nagainst Djoko in the trial.<\/p>\n
\"The responsibility of the Attorney General's Office was to
\npresent a solid indictment against Djoko Tjandra. The indictment
\nwas weak, while the prosecutors selected did not seem to
\nunderstand the case,\" Trimedya said.<\/p>\n
\"The Attorney General should have conducted an internal
\ninvestigation of prosecutor Antasari Azhar for demanding only 18-
\nmonths imprisonment for Djoko.\"<\/p>\n
\"Why was Antasari instead promoted to the position of head of
\nthe South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office?\"<\/p>\n
Teten added that despite what the public thought, he saw the
\nfacts of the Bank Bali case as being very straightforward.<\/p>\n
\"The January 1999 cessie (assignment of rights) contract was
\nused as an instrument to commit corruption,\" Teten said.<\/p>\n
He added that law enforcers were looking at the case as if it
\nwere a civil case while in fact corruption was a highly developed
\npractice which made use of laws, decrees and the government
\napparatus to illicitly obtain state funds.<\/p>\n
\"Bank Indonesia (BI) director Erman Munzir had initially
\nissued a letter to delay the disbursement of Rp 904 billion to
\nBank Bali, since he considered the amount excessively large and
\nstated that the government should only disburse Rp 495 billion,
\nwhich was the exact amount needed to recoup Bank Bali's interbank
\nloans from BDNI,\" Teten said.<\/p>\n
\"Instead, Rp 904 billion was disbursed. Of that amount, Rp 546
\nbillion went to PT EGP. Bank Bali was left with only Rp 358
\nbillion. The Rp 546 billion 'commission' was paid to PT EGP for a
\njob it never actually did, namely recouping the funds.\"<\/p>\n
\"Is this not a crime?\"<\/p>\n
He added that the prosecution had also failed to follow the
\ntrail of the money from PT EGP to Bank Indonesia or its
\nofficials.<\/p>\n
Economist Sri Mulyani said it was clear the prosecutor had a
\nvery weak case against defendant Djoko and that the 18-month jail
\nterm demanded by the prosecutor did not \"make any sense\".<\/p>\n
\"We were all shocked with the prosecutor's demand. Public
\npressure is needed to do something about the verdict on Djoko. If
\nthere is bribery within the Attorney General's Office or the
\nSouth Jakarta District Court, then it is a fatal mistake which
\ncould result in a popular backlash,\" Mulyani said.<\/p>\n
The court proceedings involving prime suspect Djoko began with
\na surprising choice of prosecutor and ended with allegations of
\nbribes being paid to the 30-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama
\norganization, formerly chaired by President Abdurrahman Wahid, as
\nwell as to officials in the Attorney General's Office and the
\nSouth Jakarta District Court.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Ridwan Moekiat, who became a favorite whipping boy
\nof the media for his irrelevant questioning during the
\nexamination of 50 of the 56 witnesses in the case, has allegedly
\nbeen previously implicated in a corruption scandal involving the
\nselling of court evidence in the form of land worth billions of
\nrupiah.<\/p>\n
Ridwan asked for early retirement, and was replaced by
\nAntasari Azhar, who only got to examine six witnesses. (ylt)<\/p>",
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