Provincial prosecutors given authority to handle graft<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Provincial prosecutors across the country and five prosecutors'
\noffices in Jakarta received on Monday a special privilege: the
\nfull autonomy to probe into corruption cases formerly handled
\nexclusively by the Attorney General's Office.<\/p>\n
There will be an exception, however, regarding corruption
\ncases involving "national figures, many victims and two or more
\nprovinces".<\/p>\n
Graft, which is categorized as a special crime, was previously
\nthe sole jurisdiction of high-ranking officials in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The new decentralization policy was announced on Monday by
\nAttorney General M.A. Rachman during a media conference on the
\neve of his office's 43rd anniversary.<\/p>\n
"Don't be under the impression that the authority (to handle
\ncorruption cases) is in the hands of the Attorney General only,"
\nsaid Rachman.<\/p>\n
He said the policy was drawn due to the increasing number of
\ncorruption cases in the country that his office alone could not
\naccommodate.<\/p>\n
From January 2002 to May 2003, the office probed 746
\ncorruption cases, including 22 involving the Bank Indonesia
\nliquidity support (BLBI).<\/p>\n
The office has uncovered many other BLBI embezzlement cases,
\nbut it has turned out to be a humiliation, as no convicts from
\nthe cases have served their jail sentences so far.<\/p>\n
The commitment of the Attorney General's Office in eradicating
\ncorruption has been widely questioned, even after the reform
\nmovement. Some have even accused the office of being corrupt.<\/p>\n
Rachman said each provincial prosecutor would be permitted to
\nissue indictments or to recommend sentences for defendants
\nwithout consulting Jakarta.<\/p>\n
A number of high-ranking officials with Rachman's office
\npreviously had the full authority to dictate to prosecutors
\nacross the country on indictments or sentence recommendations
\nagainst corruption suspects, regardless of their lack of
\nknowledge about the cases.<\/p>\n
Legal observers have blamed the office's failure to jail
\nparticularly wealthy and powerful corrupters, let alone to
\nreclaim the stolen money for the state under the centralized
\npolicy.<\/p>\n
The old policy caused a delay in legal proceedings -- a
\ncorruption case may take more than a year at court -- and opened
\ndoors for possible foul play between prosecutors and corruptors,
\ncritics said.<\/p>\n
In past cases, prosecutors had recommended the court to
\nsentence high-profile graft defendants to only six months for
\nembezzling billions of rupiah in state funds, and some had even
\nrequested the suspects' acquittal.<\/p>\n
Rachman himself is not clear of suspicion, as he was reported
\nto police by the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN)
\nfor allegedly submitting a falsified wealth report. His case has
\nyet to be opened by the police, pending permission from the
\nPresident.<\/p>\n
Antasari Azhar, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office,
\nsaid that provincial prosecutors would also be allowed
\ncommunicate to the public the cases they were handling in order
\nto guarantee transparency of legal proceedings.<\/p>\n
The office had previously banned prosecutors from talking to
\njournalists directly about an open case.<\/p>\n
Soewarsono, deputy attorney general for administration, said
\nthe office would also provide training for prosecutors in a bid
\nto develop their "competence and mental process".<\/p>\n
"Currently, we preparing 400 prosecutor candidates across the
\ncountry for the training program. They must learn from their
\nsupervisors about prosecuting before joining the program," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The candidates are expected to learn how to investigate a
\ncase, draft legal arguments for indictments and defend their
\narguments.<\/p>\n
There have been accusations that prosecutors were incapable of
\nissuing indictments or defending their legal arguments in court,
\nwhich resulted in a series of failures in bringing suspects of
\nbig corruption cases and other crimes to justice.<\/p>\n
Soewarsono added that the office also planned to boost
\nreligious classes for prosecutors "to develop good mental
\nprocesses".<\/p>",
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