http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/attorney-general-chief-of-police-face-lie-lawsuit/392732
A legal action demands that National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso
Danuri, in this file photo, and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji publish an
apology for claiming to have recordings of former corruption suspects, in five
newspapers and on 11 TV stations. (Reuters Photo/Dadang Tri)
Attorney General, Chief of Police Face 'Lie' Lawsuit
Heru Andriyanto, Farouk Arnaz & Nivell Rayda | August 25, 2010
Jakarta. A lawyer on Tuesday filed a civil suit against the National Police
chief and the attorney general seeking a public apology for having falsely
claimed they were in possession of wiretapped phone conversations incriminating
two antigraft commissioners.
"There are no such recordings. So they simply told a lie. Now we want the
police chief and the attorney general to publicly admit that," Sugeng Teguh
Santoso told reporters after registering the suit at the South Jakarta District
Court.
The legal action demands that National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso
Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji publish an apology in five
newspapers, have it broadcast by 11 TV stations and pay Rp 10 million ($1,110)
in damages.
"It's not a big amount but we need the money to cover the expenses of the legal
proceedings until it reaches the Supreme Court," said Sugeng, who said he
represented a group called People's Voice Against Arbitrary Criminal Charges.
Hendarman told lawmakers late last year that police and prosecutors had secured
recordings proving the extortion and abuse of power charges against Chandra M
Hamzah and Bibit Samat Riyanto, deputies of the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK).
The phone conversations allegedly involved suspected case broker Ary Muladi and
Ade Rahardja, the chief of enforcement at the antigraft agency.
But when the judges in the graft trial of businessman Anggodo Widjojo - who
claimed to have paid the KPK officials Rp 5.1 billion in bribes - ordered the
recordings to be presented as evidence, police initially gave no response but
later said the recorded conversations were merely phone call data.
The call data record, which only logs the phone numbers and the date and time
of a call, were not presented to the court either.
"We have evidence to prove that police and prosecutors had earlier boasted
about the recordings. We have many witnesses to testify for us, including
lawmakers, Ary Muladi and Ade Rahardja," said Sugeng, who is also an attorney
for Ary.
Ary was initially named a suspect for channeling Anggodo's money to antigraft
officials but he was later released for lack of evidence. However, the KPK last
month renamed Ary as a suspect for obstructing justice along with Anggodo.
AGO spokesman Babul Khoir Harahap denied the office had lied about the
recordings and refused to issue an apology.
"We don't need to apologize because we did not tell any lie," Babul said,
claiming that in the Nov. 9, 2009, meeting with lawmakers, Hendarman never said
anything about the recordings.
"We have asked for a video record of that meeting and couldn't find such
remarks," Babul said.
Meanwhile, the KPK said the police on Monday had handed over call data records
alledgedly proving telephone contact between Ade and Ary.
The records were delivered in a sealed envelope, KPK prosecutor I Kadek
Wiradhana said. "We haven't opened it yet because the records are requested by
the court." He added that only the judges should have access to it.
Meanwhile, Anggodo's lawyers told the Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday that his
client had never attempted to bribe Bibit and Chandra to halt an investigation
into the dealings of his brother, graft fugitive Anggoro.
