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

The presidential fact-finding team known as the Team of Eight on Thursday began trying to determine whether there was a link between the arrests of two anticorruption officials and likely irregularities in fund rertrieval from the ailing PT Bank Century .

The arrests of Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah, two deputy chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), spurred public outrage, forcing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to appoint the fact-finding team.

The team has determined that the National Police did not have sufficient evidence to charge the pair with abuse of power and extortion, as it did in September.

Analysts and activists have speculated all along that police targeted Bibit and Chandra to stop a KPK investigation into possible irregularities involving then-National Police Chief Detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji and tycoon Boedi Sampoerna, a Bank Century depositor.

A KPK source told the Jakarta Globe in a recent interview that the commission had intercepted a telephone conversation between Susno and Boedi’s lawyer, Lucas, in which Susno allegedly solicited a Rp 10 billion ($1.06 million) payoff in return for the safe withdrawal of Boedi’s Rp 2 trillion from the bank at a time when the bank was suffering liquidity problems and had its fund frozen by the government.

On Thursday, Lucas requested the team to hear his version of the story. He said after the meeting that “there was no promise of money whatsoever.”

“My client’s money was being withheld by Bank Century. I contacted Susno, asking him to write a letter saying that my client’s money is not connected to any police investigation. My client still hadn’t obtained his money back.”

The KPK source said Susno had later discovered that his conversation with Lucas had been recorded.

“I don’t know who alerted him, but suddenly Susno called one of his subordinates [stationed at the KPK] to confirm the wiretapping,” the source said.

Susno told the team last week that he had purposely deceived the KPK into believing that bribery was involved, merely to determine who had wiretapped him.

The country’s antimoney-laundering agency later discovered that Susno’s bank account had mysteriously swelled.

The naming of Bibit and Chandra as suspects, in addition to the dismissal of KPK chief Antasari Azhar after he became a defendant in a murder case, left the organization unable to make any strategic decisions, including naming Susno as a graft suspect.

Bibit told the Globe that Susno was not the target of the KPK’s wiretap. “We were wiretapping someone else also connected to the Century investigation,” he said, without elaborating. “Because Susno contacted this person several times, we had him on record as well.”

Police later began investigating the pair, and Antasari was arrested for murder. During his questioning, Antasari allegedly told police that during his meeting with corruption fugitive Anggoro Widjojo, Anggoro claimed to have bribed several of Antasari’s subordinates, including Bibit and Chandra.

However, Anggoro’s brother, Anggodo Widjojo, is alleged to have participated in a plot to frame Bibit and Chandra on Anggoro’s behalf.

“We want to know the chronology as to why Antasari’s case developed into a bribery allegation. Furthermore, we want to know who made the initiative,” said Denny Indrayana, a member of the Team of Eight.