Farouk Arnaz

Students in a show of support for the Corruption Eradication Commission in Jakarta on Monday. The bread, in the form of a crocodile, represents the police. (Photo: Afriadi Hikmal, JG)

Police Claim to Have Solid Evidence Against Anticorruption Deputies

The National Police claims to be in possession of solid evidence of bribery and abuse of power against two antigraft deputies, including videos from closed-circuit television cameras that would stand up in any Jakarta court, according to a document obtained by the Jakarta Globe on Monday.

The president’s fact-finding team concluded on Monday that police evidence against Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, suspended deputies of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), was “weak” and would not stand up in court.

However, the document obtained by the Globe states that police have a CCTV recording that would clearly invalidate any statement Chandra or Bibit had made about never having met case broker Ary Muladi.

Police noted in the document that one of the videotapes clearly showed a meeting between Ary, Bibit and KPK deputy director of investigations Ade Rahardja at the Bellagio Residence in South Jakarta.

The document states that the video would show the meeting took place at the Bellagio’s Tomodachi restaurant in August 2008. Another video recording shows a meeting between Ary and Ade at the Residence’s Lemon Tree Restaurant, also in August 2008, and yet another one shows a meeting between Ary, Ade and former KPK director of investigations Bambang Widaryatmo.

The video recordings, the document states, were verified through a digital forensic examination at the National Police’s cybercrimes laboratory in July.

The document claims the recordings collectively told a story of a “deal” related to the case involving graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo, who was being investigated in relation to a Forestry Ministry project involving his company PT Masaro Radiokom in 2007.

It also said “the one who would arrange meetings to deal with the problem, pursued doggedly by the KPK, was Ary Muladi.”

The document describes the seizure of several records of telephone calls between Ary and Ade, restaurant receipts, parking tickets from vehicles belonging to KPK commissioners parked at the Bellagio Residence, and the KPK guestbook, which showed that Ary had visited the KPK offices at least six times.

The police document claims that Anggoro channeled Rp 5.15 billion ($545,000) through Ary to a number of KPK officials after the KPK had raided the offices of Masaro Radiokom in June 2008.

Anggoro, who fled to Singapore after the raid, called his brother Anggodo to find somebody to fix his problem with the KPK, the document states.

Anggodo then called Ary, who then contacted the KPK’s Ade, it said.

According to Ary, Ade asked for Rp 3.75 billion to drop Anggoro’s case. Ary then reported the request to Anggodo, and the money was handed over by Ary to Ade at the Menara Peninsula Hotel in West Jakarta, the document states.

The document said the money was divided as follows: Rp 1.5 billion for Bibit; Rp 1 billion for KPK deputy M Jasin; Rp 1 billion for Bambang; and Rp 250 million for operational purposes. The money was transferred in August and September 2008, it said.

Despite the payments, the KPK continued its investigation. Anggoro then contact Anggodo to look for someone who could contact Antasari Azhar, former chairman of the KPK, who is currently facing murder charges.

Anggodo contacted another case broker named Eddy Sumarsono, who arranged the October 2008 meeting in Singapore between Antasari and Anggoro, the document said.

After that meeting, Anggodo, Antasari and Eddy went to Malang, East Java to meet with Ary, who told them that the money had been distributed via Ade, including an additional Rp 1 billion for Chandra, in April 2009, the document said.

However, Ary recently retracted his testimony. He said he gave the money to a person named Yulianto. Ary said he fabricated everything and has apologized to the suspended KPK commissioners.

Bibit, Ade, Jasin and Chandra have denied all the allegations.

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