Indonesia demotes chief of detectives amid corruption scandal

Jakarta - Indonesia's chief of detectives was removed from his post amid allegations of involvement in a conspiracy to frame two senior anti-corruption officials, media reports said Wednesday. Susno Duadji's demotion at the National Police came one day after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the country's law enforcement agencies to launch broad legal reforms.

Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said Duadji would remain a "high-ranking official" in police headquarters, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

Duadji was one of several officials allegedly involved in an attempt to frame two deputy chiefs of the country's respected Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The public scandal arose from a power struggle between the KPK and other law enforcement agencies, including the police and the attorney general's office. The furore prompted to Yudhoyono to intervene and order the corruption charges be dismissed against the two officials.

Yudhoyono also urged law enforcement agencies to initiate internal reforms and said he would set up a task force to eradicate what he called "the legal mafia," referring to the practice of bribery and other forms of corruption among police, judges and prosecutors.

A Facebook page in support of the anti-corruption commission has attracted more than 1.3 million people.

Taped recordings played in a televised court hearing this month revealed apparent evidence of a plot to frame the commissioners among a prosecutor, police investigators and the brother of a businessman who was the subject of a corruption probe by the oversight panel.

The autonomous commission, set up in 2003 to fight corruption in one of the world's most graft-prone nations, has the authority to arrest and prosecute. It has been widely praised by the public for a series of successful prosecutions of high-profile offenders.

Legislators, governors, former ministers, businessmen, one prosecutor and top central bank officials, including an in-law of Yudhoyono, have been jailed by a special corruption court.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296234,indonesia-demotes-chief-of-detectives-amid-corruption-scandal.html.