House told to question Marzuki over Baligate
JAKARTA (JP): Experts on Monday called for an investigation into reports that officials from the Attorney General's Office, including Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, had taken bribes to acquit prime suspect Djoko S. Tjandra from all charges.
Interviewed by The Jakarta Post, coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki, lawyer Trimedya Panjaitan and economist Sri Mulyani stressed the need for the House of Representatives (DPR) to call upon Marzuki to clarify the bribery allegations.
"The DPR should call upon Marzuki to examine how much truth there is in these rumors. If there are indications (of corruption), the case must be prosecuted by the police," Teten said.
"Should the police find evidence that the Attorney General, or any of his officials, took bribes to free Djoko, the officials concerned should be asked to resign."
The bribery allegations were brought to the attention of the media by a number of former prosecutors recently.
As reported earlier, the South Jakarta District Court freed Djoko on a legal technicality and the prosecution's failure to back up its case with witnesses.
Djoko is a director of trading and investment firm PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), which had taken over Bank Bali's interbank loans from closed Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI). Djoko was charged with improperly influencing certain officials, including suspended Bank Indonesia (central bank) governor Sjahril Sabirin, to disburse Rp 904 billion in repayment of the loans.
Separately, lawyer Trimedya Panjaitan condemned Marzuki for asking the National Ombudsman Committee to investigate the bribery allegations, instead of preparing a solid indictment against Djoko in the trial.
"The responsibility of the Attorney General's Office was to present a solid indictment against Djoko Tjandra. The indictment was weak, while the prosecutors selected did not seem to understand the case," Trimedya said.
"The Attorney General should have conducted an internal investigation of prosecutor Antasari Azhar for demanding only 18- months imprisonment for Djoko."
"Why was Antasari instead promoted to the position of head of the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office?"
Teten added that despite what the public thought, he saw the facts of the Bank Bali case as being very straightforward.
"The January 1999 cessie (assignment of rights) contract was used as an instrument to commit corruption," Teten said.
He added that law enforcers were looking at the case as if it were a civil case while in fact corruption was a highly developed practice which made use of laws, decrees and the government apparatus to illicitly obtain state funds.
"Bank Indonesia (BI) director Erman Munzir had initially issued a letter to delay the disbursement of Rp 904 billion to Bank Bali, since he considered the amount excessively large and stated that the government should only disburse Rp 495 billion, which was the exact amount needed to recoup Bank Bali's interbank loans from BDNI," Teten said.
"Instead, Rp 904 billion was disbursed. Of that amount, Rp 546 billion went to PT EGP. Bank Bali was left with only Rp 358 billion. The Rp 546 billion 'commission' was paid to PT EGP for a job it never actually did, namely recouping the funds."
"Is this not a crime?"
He added that the prosecution had also failed to follow the trail of the money from PT EGP to Bank Indonesia or its officials.
Economist Sri Mulyani said it was clear the prosecutor had a very weak case against defendant Djoko and that the 18-month jail term demanded by the prosecutor did not "make any sense".
"We were all shocked with the prosecutor's demand. Public pressure is needed to do something about the verdict on Djoko. If there is bribery within the Attorney General's Office or the South Jakarta District Court, then it is a fatal mistake which could result in a popular backlash," Mulyani said.
The court proceedings involving prime suspect Djoko began with a surprising choice of prosecutor and ended with allegations of bribes being paid to the 30-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama organization, formerly chaired by President Abdurrahman Wahid, as well as to officials in the Attorney General's Office and the South Jakarta District Court.
Prosecutor Ridwan Moekiat, who became a favorite whipping boy of the media for his irrelevant questioning during the examination of 50 of the 56 witnesses in the case, has allegedly been previously implicated in a corruption scandal involving the selling of court evidence in the form of land worth billions of rupiah.
Ridwan asked for early retirement, and was replaced by Antasari Azhar, who only got to examine six witnesses. (ylt)