Fellow prosecutors move against whistle-blower

Fellow prosecutors move against whistle-blower

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an apparent attempt to silence any further corruption
allegations against Attorney General M.A. Rachman, state
prosecutors have moved to discredit their colleague Kito
Irkhamni, the whistle-blower who disclosed Rachman's concealed
wealth.

The prosecutors started on Monday their investigation into
Kito, whom Attorney General's Office spokesman Barman Zahir
accused of failing to have fulfilled his duty as head of the
civil and administrative cases unit at Sungailiat prosecutor's
office in Bangka Belitung province.

"We've started clarifying the matter. We have summoned the
head of Sungailiat prosecutors' office for questioning today,"
Barman told reporters, but he failed to explain why the office
had yet to take any measures until recently.

Kito has shocked the Attorney General's Office with his
disclosure that Rachman had asked him to purchase cars for him
and even build a luxury house for him at Graha Cinere housing
complex in Depok, West Java.

Rachman failed to report the house Kito built to the Public
Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN), which later summoned
Rachman to clarify the situation.

Rachman later stated to KPKPN that the house had been sold to
a businessman, but the commission found the payment to be way
below the market price.

Kito was summoned by KPKPN twice and revealed that he was
moonlighting as a local developer in his spare time and that he
had acted on Rachman's orders to build the house.

Ever since, Kito has received rough treatment from fellow
prosecutors.

Earlier on Monday, internal security officer M. Arsyad ejected
him from the office of the deputy attorney general for monitoring
prosecutors, saying, "You've given a bad name to this office ...
I feel hurt".

Kito claimed that he was only telling the truth.

Barman said on Monday that the move against Kito would center
on his failure to serve as the head of the civil and
administrative cases unit at the Sungailiat office.

Kito claimed he was demoted to the Sungailiat office in August
2001 following a clash with his superior, Rachman. However, he
did not go to Sungailiat as someone else still occupied his
proposed position.

During the media conference on Monday, head of Sungailiat
prosecutors' office Kusnadi Halim challenged Kito's claim.

He said the Attorney General's Office had vacated the position
reserved for Kito, and that his predecessor, Feling Siahaan, had
informed Kito in writing that he could commence his duties at
Sungailiat on Oct. 18, 2001, but had gotten no reply from Kito.

Kusnadi said Kito had phoned an official at the Sungailiat
office on Dec. 10 indicating his readiness to start work. Kito
went to Singailiat on Jan. 21, 2002.

"However, he failed to report to me. As of now, Kito has not
been inaugurated as a new official at Sungailiat and we don't
know his whereabouts," he said, adding that Kito's post was still
vacant.

Kusnadi refused to confirm the existence of his letter to the
South Sumatra provincial prosecutors' office, in which he
allegedly requested a resolution of the double leadership issue
at the civil and administrative unit of the Sungailiat
prosecutors' office.