Don't politicize legal measures, urges Marzuki

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has called on all parties not to politicize the legal measures being taken by his office so that legal processes can proceed appropriately.

"We call on everyone concerned to avoid politicizing the legal measures," he said on Friday.

Marzuki, stressing that this was merely a "reminder", and not a "warning", also asserted that everyone must "avoid any intervention into the Attorney General's Office's decisions".

Cautiously choosing his words, Marzuki commented on several prominent figures who recently came in throngs to visit detained Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Sjahril Sabirin since the latter was named a suspect in the Bank Bali case and has been kept since June 21 in the Attorney General's Office compound.

The office has seen a slew of prominent figures, under various banners, visiting Sjahril.

House of Representatives legislators, People's Consultative Assembly members, the kindred Minangkabau community, have all come claiming to be friends, partners and colleagues of Sjahril.

Aside from expressing dissatisfaction over the detention, some have even offered to be bail guarantors for him.

Marzuki has rejected such appeals, saying that the office has yet to consider the changing of Sjahril's arrest status while investigation is still taking place.

He also said such visits had not hampered the ongoing investigation, although he acknowledged that Sjahril's detention would raise "excessive reaction".

"So far, apparently, there have been no improper incidents occurring during those visits," Marzuki said.

However, he quickly added that according to the regulations, only relatives, lawyers, medical doctors and clergymen have the right to visit a detainee.

"The investigation team of the case has been authorized to select visitors regarding the relevancy and the level of urgency of the visit."

Sjahril is suspected of being involved in the scandal and is accused of paving the way for BI's reimbursement of Rp 904 billion of Bank Bali's defaulted loans.

Some Rp 546 million was illegally transferred to a private firm linked to then ruling Golkar Party and which some suspect may have been used to bankroll then president B.J. Habibie's presidential renomination bid.

Several former state officials have also been linked to the case, but only Sjahril has been detained during the investigation, which started last year.

Marzuki has denied accusations that he did not press these other figures as hard as Sjahril and that he violated the central bank's independency.

"New evidence disclosed during the investigation shows that Sjahril was implicated in the case as an individual, so it's got nothing to do with BI's authority and independence," he said.

Corrupt

Meanwhile, several Indonesian corruption watchdogs jointly called on the government on Friday to thoroughly investigate and to establish a reliable court to try politically charged corruption cases allegedly involving state officials.

After a five-day meeting in Yogyakarta, Central Java, 25 anticorruption non-governmental organizations urged for the establishment of an ad hoc court since the existing courts and other judiciary bodies no longer have the people's trust.

"This effort could be considered the best solution to solve high-profile corruption cases, including that of former president Soeharto, Texmaco, the Bulog scandal and the alleged aid money received by the President from Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah," Abdullah Kamil from the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) announced.

In a joint statement the organizations also concluded that the government had maltreated these cases by making them out to be more like political issues rather than crimes.

Such a condition, it said, only further encourages state officials to commit corruption.

To prevent it, the organizations have urged the government to include all nonbudgetary funds and expenditures formally in the state budget to ensure accountability.

They further recommended that officials declare their wealth before and after serving an official post.

They also want the government to revise the existing law on corruption and other rulings that are not in line with the nation's efforts to eradicate corruption. (swa/bby)