Indonesian president vows to fight judicial corruption

Nov 5, 2009, 11:28 GMT

   Jakarta - Indonesia's president pledged Thursday to step up the fight against corruption in the justice system after wiretapped recordings revealed an apparent attempt to undermine the country's anti-corruption commission.

   Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said cracking down on what Indonesians called 'the judicial mafia' was one of the priorities of the first 100 days of his second five-year term, which started October 20.

   'Judicial mafias are everywhere,' Yudhoyono said after a cabinet meeting. 'They are in the courts, in the police, in the Attorney General's Office, in government ministries and in the KPK,' or Corruption Eradication Commission.

   Yudhoyono said victims of corruption in the justice system could send their complaints to a newly created address.

   His remarks came after the Constitutional Court played recordings of tapped phone conversations in which a businessman allegedly discussed an apparent plot to undermine the anti-corruption commission with a senior prosecutor and police investigators.

   Entrenched corruption in the justice system is no secret to Indonesians, but the revelation has nevertheless sparked an outcry.

   Protests have been held and more than 850,000 people have joined a Facebook page in support of the anti-graft commission.

   National Police Chief of Detectives Sisno Duadji and Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga tendered their resignations Thursday after they were implicated in the recordings.

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