Antasari Azhar and KPK`s ongoing war on graft

Since Monday evening, former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chief Antasari Azhar who was convicted for murder has been officially moved from the Cipinang state penitentiary to a correctional facility in Tangerang, west of Jakarta.

He was initially transferred from the Jakarta metropolitan police detention center to Cipinang prison in east Jakarta on Monday morning but then moved again to the Tangerang penitentiary west of the capital city at night.

Antasari Azhar was taken to the Tangerang prison by a black Isuzu Panther van which arrived there at about 07.45 PM local time. 

There were at least two reasons for his transfer from Cipinang to Tangerang , namely a request from Antasari`s family and the fact that Cipinang jail already overcrowded.

The former KPK chief told newsmen he would consistently respect the whole legal process, including the South Jakarta district court`s verdict that sentenced him to 18 years in jail.

"I have been undergoing this legal process for two years," he said adding that he had no feeling of revenge against anybody in the murder case for which he now had to spend 18 years in jail.

Antasari Azhar, however, said he still had a chance to ask for a justice by filing a judicial review of his sentence.

The South Jakarta prosecutors office`s execution in response to the Supreme Court`s rejection of Antasari Azhar`s appeal was publicly known since Sunday.

Head of the South Jakarta district Court Muhammad Jusuf told ANTARA News that the move was done in response to the Supreme Court`s decision.

Antasari Azhar was found guilty by the South Jakarta district court`s panel of judges in connection with the high profile case that arose over the murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen in 2009.

Nasrudin was shot on his head inside his BMW sedan by a man riding a motorbike later known as Daniel Daen Sabon on March 14, 2009 after playing a golf at Modern Land Golf Course in Tangerang. 

That ill-fated businessman died of the shot wounds after being hospitalized for several hours at the Gatot Subroto army hospital in Jakarta. 

In connection with this murder case, the South Jakarta district court`s panel of judges, headed by Herri Swantoro, sentenced him to 18 years in jail last year for masterminding Zulkarnaen`s murder.

All parties related to this case, such as the extended families of the late Nasrudin Zulkarnaen and those of Antasari Azhar, and his lawyers, were disappointed with the jury`s verdict.

The Antasari case itself has been attracting nation-wide attention since it began in 2009. On the day the South Jakarta court jury was to announce its verdict in February 2010, a group of local residents in the Central Java town of Temanggung staged a rally to show their sympathy for Antasari.

They said that the sacked KPK chief was only the victim of a "criminalization" plot involving people who resented his actions in fighting corruption.

Abour her husband`s moving to the Tangerang prison, Antasari Azhar`s wife, Ida Laksmiwati, said it was in favor for her and other family members because the penitentiary was closer to her home at the BSD housing complex so that they easily visited him.

"If (Antasari) is jailed at the Tangerang prison, it is better and closer for us to visit him more frequently," she said.

Ida said her husband looked healthier and chubby during his prison time in the Jakarta metropolitan police`s jail as could be seen from the change of his shirt`s size from "M" into "XL". 

Apart from Antasari Azhar`s fall from the KPK chairmanship post, the commission itself continues its role in the war on corruption under the leadership of M Busyro Muqoddas who won the KPK`s top seat in November 2010.

The KPK, for instance, was able to recover state assets totaling Rp700 billion from convicted corruptors in 2010 and vowed to accomplish the handling of fire truck procurement cases with the alleged involvement of "big fishes" in 2011.

"We will soon process the `big fishes`," the commission`s deputy chairman for law enforcement, Bibit Samad Riyanto said at the year-end press briefing here.

The commission had also declared its commitment to continuously supervise regional governments` performance because more than half of the state budgets is allocated to them.

"As a consequence of the regional autonomy system, more than fifty percent of the state budget is allocated to regional governments. So, we need to keep supervising them," the commission`s deputy chairman for law enforcement, Chandra M.Hamzah, said.

Corruption crimes are believe to keep overshadowing Indonesia. Therefore, as what the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) Coordinator for Legal Affairs Febri Diansyah had expected, the KPK needs to be firmer and stronger in fighting against graft.(*)

Source: ANTARA