The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 06/03/2010 9:23 PM
The Jakarta High Court upheld on Thursday a lower court’s verdict which ordered the Attorney General’s Office to investigate into alleged extortion involving Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chiefs Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah.
In its verdict the high court judges said the state prosecutors had inappropriately halted their probe into the graft case implicating the two KPK leaders.
“The legal construction was clear then that it should not encourage the prosecutors to stop the investigation due to sociological reasons,” spokesman for the high court Andi Samsan Nganro said, quoting the judges’ verdict.
The panel of judges insisted that the prosecutors exercise their authority to ignore the case if they found sociological or political reasons that would make it difficult for them to continue the investigation.
“They should have not stopped the probe,” said Andi, a former Corruption Court judge.
The South Jakarta District Court declared the suspension of the investigation into Bibit and Chandra flawed.
The pretrial lawsuit had been filed by businessman Anggodo Widjaja, who the KPK has been named suspect for attempting to bribe investigators. Anggodo claimed to have spent Rp 5.1 billion to pay bribes demanded by KPK investigators, including Bibit and Chandra, through middleman Ari Muladi last year to help his brother Anggoro Widjojo evade KPK investigation into his role in an alleged graft.
Ari, however, said he never gave the money to Bibit or Chandra, but to another middleman named Yulianto, whose whereabouts remain unknown until today.
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