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SBY Says He Can't Intervene in KPK Arrests
Kinanti Pinta Karana | October 30, 2009

Bibit Samad Rianto (left) and Chandra M Hamzah talking in the Constitutional Court. (Photo: Yudhi Mahatma, Antara) Bibit Samad Rianto (left) and Chandra M Hamzah talking in the Constitutional Court. (Photo: Yudhi Mahatma, Antara)
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Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday that as president of Indonesia he cannot intervene in legal proceedings or ask the police not to detain someone. Yudhoyono spoke in response to public pressure that he act on behalf of suspended anticorruption chiefs Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, who were arrested on Thursday.

"I have to follow the rules or laws. I have never asked for somebody to be arrested or released, not my aides, a member of Democratic Party, not even my relatives,” said Yudhoyono at the press conference at the State Palace.

“Friction between state institutions is not a president's authority to mediate but the Constitutional Court,” he said.

Yudhoyono has faced public pressure to resolve an increasingly bitter dispute between the National Police and the KPK

Chandra and Bibit were arrested despite apparently cooperating with the investigation against them. The two are accused of abuse of power for allegedly lifting a travel ban in order to allow a graft suspect to flee the country.

A KPK lawyer has countered that the accusations were trumped up by authorities to muzzle the powerful antigraft commission. Those claims were bolstered by an alleged transcript of wiretapped conversations that was widely published in Indonesian media this week, which appeared to show a then-official at the Attorney General's Office and others plotting against the two.

Prosecutors have denied accusations of a conspiracy.

“It is not an extraordinary thing for a person who is under investigation to be arrested,” the president said.

“It has become a controversy because both of them are KPK leaders and many people did not believe that KPK leaders could commit a corruption-related crime, and also the issue of friction between KPK and the police over the last three months,” said Yudhoyono.

He added that the tapes and transcripts should be revealed in full, along with the identity of the wiretapper.

“Expose them so that public will know, in the name of truth and justice,” he said.

"Was it conducted according to the law? If it wasn't, there will be an ocean of wiretapping and that is a violation of the law,” he said.

The president said the tapes had hurt him, because his nickname, RI-1, is mentioned on them.

“I don't know anything about them. I didn't do any kind of communication [on them] and they have caused me damage,” he said.

If the legal proceedings uncover wrondoing, Yudhoyono asked the public not to blame whole organizations for it.

"If there are KPK officers who made mistakes and broke the law, it is not the mistake of the institution. The same goes for the police and the AGO,” said Yudhoyono.

He added the the KPK had an important role, and that the fight against corruption was still a priority for his administration.