Attorney General Rachman 'ready to resign' from post

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Attorney General M.A. Rachman expressed his readiness to relinquish his position should he be found guilty of corruption.

However, he said he was confident he would be proven innocent and that the court would acquit him of all charges.

"I do not want to speculate whether I will be replace or not, the process is not in place yet. Let's just see what happens," he said after attending Idul Fitri celebrations at the State Palace over the weekend.

Rachman was responding to reports that the Public Servant's Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) had filed a report with the police alleging that he had been involved in corruption.

KPKPN has implied that the attorney general was involved in corruption and lied when he failed to list two luxurious houses and cars to the commission.

The investigation focused on Rachman's alleged ownership of a house worth Rp 5 billion (US$561,700) in the Graha Cinere housing complex in Depok, West Java, and several bank accounts containing Rp 545.6 million and US$29,600.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has hailed KPKPN's move, saying it gave her legal justification to either maintain Rachman in his present position or replace him. She previously dismissed suggestions to replace Rachman because of the absence of legal justification.

Following KPKPN's report, the police are expected to investigate Rachman immediately. The President has not announced whether he will be suspended or not.

Rachman claimed recently that he had given the Graha Cinere house to his daughter, while the amounts in his bank accounts came from several East Java businessmen who he helped between 1999 to 2001.

He also reportedly gave contradictory explanations about his assets to the KPKPN, prompting the commission last week to submit the report to the police for further investigation as required by a presidential decree on the KPKPN and its tasks.

The KPKPN also sent official notification to the President urging her to suspend Rachman.

Rachman has said he is ready to face the legal process following the KPKPN's report to the police.

"If I must face investigation, then I will. But I am still waiting for the legal procedure," he said.