Transparency International Slams Move Against Corruption Investigators
Thursday, 29 October, 2009 | 21:16 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Transparency International Indonesia slammed on Thursday the detention of two suspended corruption investigators as a sign of panic within the national police in responding to the transcripted telephone conversations that mentioned President Yudhoyono's stance in the case and attempts to shut down the anti-graft commission.

“The police began to panic with (the emergence) of the transcript, they were shaken,” the Secretary General of Tranparency International Indonesia Teten Masduki said on Thursday.

The transcripts with Yudhoyono's name in it was the latest twist in the corruption case at the Forestry Department as Chandra and Bibit brought their case and reported the transcripts to the Constitution Court, before police decided on Thursday to detain them.

A statement in the transcripts which mentioned about plans close down the newly established anti-graft commission has provided clear endorsement to the widely circulating speculation that the case filed against Chandra and Bibit is not completely unrelated to the murder case against its former boss Antasari Azhar.

Founded in the wake of anti-corruption sentiments in 2004, the Corruption Eradication Commission was given the authority to investigate, prosecute, and try corruption cases, which led to solution of more high profile corruption cases in the executive as well as in the legislative branch, than those solved by the Attorney General's Office and the National Police combined.

DIANING SARI