•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Tensions worsened between the country’s prosecutors and police, and the anticorruption agency on Monday with the release of a transcript of wiretapped phone conversations supposedly proving a plot to fabricate a graft case against senior members of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Some of the reputed taped conversations were allegedly between Wisnu Subroto, the Attorney General’s Office’s deputy for intelligence, who retired earlier this year, Anggodo Widjojo, the brother of fugitive businessman and corruption suspect Anggoro Widjojo, and Ary Muladi, a middleman allegedly used to channel bribe money to KPK officials. The men allegedly talked about how to testify in a graft case in a way that would implicate two deputy chairmen of the anticorruption agency, or KPK, in taking bribes.

The two KPK deputies in question are Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto. They are currently suspended while being investigated by the National Police in a bribery case involving Anggoro and his company, PT Radiokom Masaro. The men are being investigated for abuse of power and police are attempting to prove they accepted bribes in exchange for letting Anggoro flee the country last year.

The transcript was published on Monday by online news portal Vivanews.com, providing the latest twist in an ongoing power struggle with the KPK.

At a news conference on Monday evening, KPK Chairman Hatorangan Tumpak Panggabean confirmed the existence of taped conversations and said they were part of the investigation in the Masaro case. However, he refused to confirm or deny whether they contained the same information as the transcript circulating in the media.

“We’re also wondering about how the document came to be circulated in the media. The document is well-preserved as a record of the investigation,” Tumpak was quoted as saying by online news portal detik.com.

It was the second time Wisnu has been implicated in a wiretapped conversation. In the first case he was alleged to have promised protection for a businesswoman prosecuted by the KPK last year for bribing a senior AGO prosecutor.

In the transcript of the latest recordings, Wisnu was said to have told Anggodo and Ary that Chandra’s and Bibit’s case would be handled by the AGO’s general crimes division, at the time led by Abdul Hakim Ritonga, whom Wisnu identified in the recording as “Rit.”

Wisnu also allegedly gave instructions to Anggodo and Ary on how to testify in the case to implicate the two KPK deputies. Ary did testify to police that he handed bribe money to Chandra, but he later recanted his statments through his lawyer, saying he was under police pressure.

State news agency Antara quoted Wisnu on Monday as saying the transcript was part of a “grand design” to bring him down. He said he retired as a prosecutor in May, while the conversations were recorded from July to August.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said on Monday that he had contacted Ritonga, who is now senior deputy attorney general, and he “neither denied nor confirmed” the content of the supposed recording.

“He gave some clarification, but I can’t tell you everything he said,” said Hendarman, who claimed he just learned about the transcript and the taped conversation from the media.

He declined to say what action his office might take in response. “How can we consider actions if we don’t know who did what?” he said. “We don’t know whose voice is on the recording. It’s all just assumptions in the newspapers.”

Marwan Effendy, the deputy attorney general for special crimes who is handling Bibit and Chandra’s bribery case, denied that the case was fabricated and challenged the KPK deputies to prove in court their claims that they were being framed.

“If they are in possession of the recording as they claim, they can use it as evidence in court,” Marwan said. He also expressed doubt that fellow AGO officials had plotted to frame the KPK deputies.

Wisnu has publicly denied any plot but admitted to knowing Anggodo, from whom he said he often bought jewelry.

In the transcripts, several references to the National Police headquarters were also made.

On Monday morning, National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said, “There is no design to trap the KPK, but I shall wait and see whether this taped conversation does indeed exist.”