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Aformer district court judge named a suspect for allegedly taking bribes from former tax official Gayus Tambunan denied the charges on Friday.

“Is not true, but please ask my lawyer,” he told the Jakarta Globe during a Friday prayer break from police questioning.

Muhtadi Asnun, who headed the Tangerang District Court, is alleged to have taken up to Rp 400 million ($44,000) from Gayus, who was acquitted on March 12 with the court citing insufficient evidence .

The acquittal came despite police having discovered Rp 28 billion in the mid-ranking tax official’s bank accounts.

“We are charging [Asnun] with taking bribes and he could be arrested. But it is up to the independent police team investigating this case to take the decision,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang told a news conference.

Asnun faces charges under the 2001 Law on Corruption Eradication, and faces up to life in jail and a Rp 1 billion fine.

But the case only surfaced after former National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji blew the whistle, saying graft was involved in Gayus’s acquittal.

Susno is now being investigated for allegedly receiving a Rp 500 million payoff from suspected case broker Sjahril Djohan in relation to an investigation into a fish farm.

Susno refused to answer a police summons for questioning on Thursday. He has said he feared he would be arrested.

On Friday, Sjahril asked reporters to relay a message to Susno. “I hope that Susno could act, even a little bit, like a man. Be a gentleman and do not look worried like this,” said Sjahril, who was accompanied by his lawyer, Hotma Sitompul.

Sjahril declined to answer when asked if he had personally delivered the bribe in a brown paper bag to Susno’s house in South Jakarta in December 2008.

But he confirmed that a man claiming to be Susno’s envoy had met him in Singapore and told him it was unnecessary for him to return to Indonesia as Susno would come to meet him. But Sjahril chose to return to Jakarta, where he was named as suspect and arrested.

Edward said police had sent another summons for Susno to appear for questioning on Monday, adding that the letter made no mention of him being questioned as a suspect.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office said it had received formal police notification of a criminal investigation into Asnun, but nothing yet on senior prosecutor Cirus Sinaga, who oversaw Gayus’s controversial trial.

“We have received a police letter about MA, accompanied with an approval from the Supreme Court, to summon and investigate him as suspect, ” said Marwan Effendy, the deputy attorney general for special crimes, referring to Asnun by his initials.

“In total, police have named nine suspects in their separate notification letters to us, but I couldn’t find ‘C’ among them,” he said, referring to Cirus.

Under the law, police need approval from the attorney general to summon and detain a prosecutor as a suspect in a criminal case, unless the prosecutor was caught red-handed committing a crime.

Deputy Attorney General Darmono said his office would not stand in the way of the police if there was enough evidence to charge Cirus or any other prosecutor.

“It’s no problem for us. It depends on the results of the police investigation, “ he said.