Farouk Arnaz

Suspect or Not? Indonesia Police Offer Conflicting Information on Anggodo

The National Police on Wednesday made contradictory statements about the status of Anggodo Widjojo, whose telephone conversations were secretly taped during an investigation by the antigraft commission into his brother, businessman Anggoro Widjojo, and his company, PT Masaro Radiokom.

“His status is that of someone who has been reported against. Or, we could also call him a suspect,” Brig. Gen. Raja Erisman, the National Police’s chief detective for economic crimes, said on Wednesday morning. He was speaking during a hearing with the House of Representatives.

However, later on Wednesday, when the Jakarta Globe sent Raja a text message to confirm that police had declared Anggodo a suspect, Raja replied, also via text message, that Anggodo’s status was still that of someone who had been reported against.

Anggodo’s lawyer, Bonaran Situmeang, said that his client was still a witness and had not been officially declared a suspect.

“He is a victim of illegal wiretapping, conducted by the Corruption Eradication Commission,” Bonaran said.

Raja said that anybody linked to the conversations taped by the commission, also known as the KPK, could be summoned as a witness as the police continued to try and build a case against Anggodo.

Many of the conversations were played on Nov. 3 during an explosive hearing at the Constitutional Court.

In the tapes Anggodo could be heard discussing with a number of people from the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office an alleged plot to undermine the KPK and two of its deputy commissioners, Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto.

A voice on the tapes also indicated that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had given his support to Anggoro. This has been vehemently denied by the president.

Police are trying to determine whether they can charge Anggodo under articles of the Criminal Code on defamation, bribery, issuing a murder threat, insulting a state institution and a state figure, and insulting the Indonesian president.

“Police will summon people whose names were mentioned in taped conversations played at the hearing of the Constitutional Court, ” Raja said.

The officer added that police requested on Friday that the KPK hand over the tapes to police for further investigation into the content of the conversations. He said they had yet to receive any response from the commission.

Police on Tuesday questioned Ary Muladi, who is considered a key witness in the plot allegedly designed to weaken the antigraft commission and pin extortion charges on the two deputies.

Ary previously told the National Police he had funneled Rp 5.1 billion ($545,000) to several executives at the KPK from long-time friend Anggodo. He later retracted this statement, saying it was fabricated.

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