http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=328115&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25
Yudhoyono steps in to defuse graft row
Anti-corruption activists chant slogans and gesture as they watch a live
television broadcast of a speech by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono in Jakarta yesterday
Indonesia's president yesterday called for corruption charges against two
deputy chairmen of the country's anti-graft commission to be dropped, citing a
public outcry over what many see as a conspiracy to weaken the body. Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono has been under public pressure to act on allegations that the
charges against the commissioners - Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra Hamzah -
were trumped up after wiretapped recordings revealed an apparent plot to frame
the them.
Yudhoyono said he had earlier believed that the law should take its course but
continuing the case could trigger social unrest given the people's lack of
faith in the process.
"A better solution would be that police and prosecutors not bring this case to
the court but still take into account a sense of justice," Yudhoyono said at a
news conference.
"The legal process is not the only consideration," he said. "Public opinion,
social unity and the discrepancy between the law and justice are taken into
account." Yudhoyono was responding to findings from a presidential
investigative team which recommended that he take action against those
implicated in the alleged conspiracy and demand police and prosecutors drop the
charges against the commissioners owing to weak evidence.
Yudhoyono urged law enforcement agencies to initiate internal reforms and said
he would set up a task force to eradicate what he called "the legal mafia",
referring to the practice of bribery and other forms of corruption among
police, judges and prosecutors. The perceived scandal has raised questions
about Yudhoyono's determination to fight endemic corruption.
Calls are mounting for Yudhoyono to sack National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso
Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, whom they perceive as being
complicit in the conspiracy. A Facebook page in support of the anti-corruption
commission has attracted more than 1.3mn people.
In the recordings played in a televised court hearing this month, a senior
prosecutor, police investigators and the brother of a businessman who was the
subject of a corruption probe by the commission appeared to be discussing
scenarios to frame Riyanto and Hamzah.
One of the speakers talked about Yudhoyono's consent to the move. Some
anti-graft activists have linked the alleged conspiracy to election funding for
Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and the government's much-criticized decision to
bail out a failing small bank, in which politically connected figures allegedly
stashed their fortunes.
Yudhoyono has denied any involvement, calling the accusations slanderous. The
anti-corruption commission, set up in 2003 to fight corruption in one of the
world's most graft-prone nations with the power to arrest and prosecute, has
been widely praised by the public for a series of successful prosecutions of
high-profile offenders.
Legislators, governors, former ministers, businessmen, one prosecutor and top
central bank officials, including an in-law of Yudhoyono, have been jailed by a
special corruption court.
The commission's trouble began in May when its chairman, Antasari Azhar, was
arrested for allegedly orchestrating a murder. Azhar, who claims the charges
against him were trumped up, is now on trial and could face the death penalty
if convicted.
A senior policeman on trial for his alleged involvement in the murder
testified this month that he was coerced by his superiors to implicate Azhar in
the killing. Police have denied the accusations. DPA
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