INDONESIA HOTLINE

The Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled a delay in the implementation of an article in the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) law on the dismissal of KPK leaders if they are defendants in a criminal case until it can reach a final ruling on the matter.

The decision thus partly approved a lawsuit filed by two deputies of KPK chairman, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah, who were suspended from their position by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the police declared them as suspects in a graft case.

The court, however, rejected other requests of stopping police investigation into the two KPK leaders, saying it could only handle lawsuits against the law, not criminal cases.

“Before handing down the final decision on the case, we rule to delay the implementation of article 32 [1] c [of the 2002 KPK law] on the dismissal of KPK members if they are defendants in a criminal case,” judge Akil Mochtar said, reading the preliminary verdict.

The ruling means that President Yudhoyono can not discharge both Bibit and Chandra from their position as KPK leaders although the police and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) managed to bring them to trial before the Constitutional Court issue a final ruling over the lawsuit, or the District Court declared the two as guilty as charged.

The President discharged last month then KPK chairman Antasari Azhar from his position after he was tried in a murder case.

The court, however, ordered the KPK in the next hearing on Tuesday to present the widely published recording that allegedly revealed an apparent conspiracy by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and police officers to fabricate evidence to implicate Bibit and Chandra in a bribery case, and allegedly mentioned support from Yudhoyono for action against the two.

“The court asks the related party [the KPK] to hand over the recording,” presiding judge Abdul Mukhti Fajar said.

The judges said that although they could not hear a criminal case, the recording was needed to support arguments made by the two KPK suspended leaders during the following hearings, a move that would allow public to know if the circulating recording’s transcript matched those held by the KPK.

In response to the order, interim deputy chief of the KPK Mas Achmad Santosa said the KPK would obey the court’s demand.

Lawyer of Bibit and Chandra Bambang Widjojanto later said that they had requested to be able present the recordings due to the suspicion that the allegations against two of his clients were engineered.

“If it [the case] was proven to be fabricated then they are not supposed to be suspects or defendants.”

The recordings are allegedly of a conversation between Ary Muladi, Anggodo Widjojo, a high-ranking official, and other unidentified officials and have been widely quoted from by the media since Sunday.

Ary is the alleged middleman with connections to AGO officials and the police, while Anggodo is the brother of Anggoro Widjojo, a corruption suspect who was being investigated by the KPK. Anggoro remains at large.

Bibit and Chandra filed a judicial review to the Court over an article stipulating that KPK chairman or deputies must be permanently discharged from their position if they were defendants in a criminal case.

Both considered the article that had violated their constitutional rights and violated the principles of presumption of innocence and equality before the law as promoted by the Constitution.

The ruling was the first preliminary verdict the Constitutional Court had ever issued since it was established in 2003.

“It is unusual to make a preliminary verdict at the Constitutional Court, but in line with legal awareness and justice values among the public, a panel of judges is considered necessary to make a preliminary verdict on this case,” Akil said.

On request by Bibit and Chandra that the court order the police to halt investigation into their case, the panel said, the “legal process faced by the plaintiffs is a criminal legal process that is not under the authority of the Constitutional Court”.