0 Indonesian President SBY Roots for Anas in Hambalang Graft Probe

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sees both personal and political stakes in the corruption case of Anas Urbaningrum, the former chairman of the party that the president founded. “For me, who struggled to build the Democratic Party with Anas, I would be happy to see him declared not guilty,” Yudhoyono said at Halim Perdanakusumah Airport in East Jakarta before taking off to Germany and Hungary on Sunday. 

But Yudhoyono said until that day came, Anas and his team of lawyers should remain focused on preparing for the legal proceedings as he is investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for bribery related to the Hambalang sports complex in Bogor, West Java. The president admitted that the case, which has snared Anas and several other Democratic cadres, had caused the party’s image to deteriorate. “This [Anas’s innocence] is certainly in the interest of the Democratic Party. 

Hopefully all charges against Anas will be dropped and then he is declared not guilty. It will bring good,” he said. Yudhoyono said he hoped the legal process would be conducted transparently. “[Hopefully] all will run transparently. The people will know if something was illogical,” he said. Anas has accused the party of politicizing his case and claimed to be the victim of a political conspiracy in which party members intervened in the law enforcement process. But the president on Sunday defended the KPK’s right to pursue the case. “Let’s just leave it to the legal enforcers, because they are carrying out a mandate from the Constitution. So it’s not based on the legal enforcers’ wish,” he said. 

Anas responded positively to Yudhoyono’s hopes for his innocence. “That’s a prayer and I’ll say amen to that. Amen,” Anas said on Sunday at his residence in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, where the wife of late President Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, was visiting. Sinta, who was at Anas’s house for an hour, quickly made clear that she came not to lend support for Anas, but to visit Anas’s father-in-law, Attabik Ali, who was ill. “That [the Hambalang case] is none of my concern, it’s the judges’ and KPK’s business. I came here to visit his father-in-law. Does visiting an ill person have to be interpreted as lending support or hatred? Of course not,” she said. 

However, Sinta did advise Anas to remain strong in accepting his God-given fate. “A human being only has to accept it, right Anas?” she asked her host. “Yes, that’s true,” Anas replied. Anas was named a suspect on Feb. 22, almost a year after his name was first mentioned in the Rp 2.5 trillion ($257 million) Hambalang sports center scandal. Johan Budi, a spokesman for the KPK, said the agency had found two pieces of solid evidence allowing them to declare Anas a suspect for allegedly receiving kickbacks in connection with Hambalang’s construction during his time as a legislator. “A.U. was charged with accepting a bribe under Article 12 of the 1999 Anti-Corruption Law,” Johan told a televised press conference, referring to Anas by his initials. Anas faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.

source : the jakarta globe