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Roundup: Indonesia's anti-corruption drive at stake as court frees more suspect from charges

Xinhua, May 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Judging panel at an Indonesian court has annulled the suspect status slapped against a corrupter due to what they said as "improper conduct of investigation that violates the existing law" carried out by the nation's anti-graft commission KPK, risking the nation's efforts to eradicate corruption that have been rampant among state officials.

Previously Indonesian courts also annulled two corrupter suspects due to similar reasons.

The KPK Acting Chairman Taifukurrahman Ruki said that the court' s latest ruling that endorses the appeal filed by Hadi Purnomo, a former tax director general, may risk hundreds of corruption cases investigated by the government-sanctioned anti-corruption agency. "It may affect 371 corruption cases which had already been probed since 2004 and legally fixed. They may get annulled as well, "Ruki told a press conference on Tuesday responding to the judge' s ruling on the appeal filed by Hadi.

Ruki added that the ruling issued by the judge has hindered investigation efforts carried out by investigators in the KPK.

Ruki was perplexed by the ruling issued by judge Haswandi earlier in the day at South Jakarta Court that freed Hadi from all corruption charges.

In his legal opinion that endorses Hadi to be freed from all charges, Haswandi said in the court that the suspect status slapped against Hadi was unjustified as an investigation was not done prior to suspect declaration against Hadi.

He said the corruption case committed by Hadi had been legally endorsed by the higher court and the Supreme Court.

According to Ruki, the latest ruling that annuls corruption suspects may incite wide and serious impact on KPK and other law enforcement agencies.

Responding to the issue, a parliament deputy speaker Fahri Hamzah said that there has to be improvement on how the KPK carries out its job. "Now the loopholes were surfaced. The KPK often use unjustified ways in carrying out its tasks,"Fahri said on Tuesday.

He proposed that an auditing process be conducted on the anti- corruption agency."This is to make KPK work professionally,"he said. Endi