Top detective, prosecutor quit in Indonesia wiretap scandal

Indonesia's top detective and deputy chief prosecutor quit Thursday after wiretap phone recordings implicated them in an alleged plot to falsely imprison anti-graft investigators.

Three-star Police General Susno Duadji, the national chief of detectives, submitted his resignation two days after the recordings were played in a nationally televised session of the Constitutional Court, scandalising the nation.

"Today he has tendered his resignation. The national police has received his letter," police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a press conference amid calls for police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri to follow suit.

Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga, also implicated in the alleged plot, announced his resignation late Thursday during a press conference.

"I want to announce here my resignation as deputy chief prosecutor. This decision is taken to save my institution (the attorney general office)," he told reporters.

Under pressure to save his new government's clean image, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to get tough.

"It will be our priority in the first 100-day programme of this government to eradicate the 'Court Mafia'," said the 60-year-old ex-general, who was re-elected in July partly on promises of clean government.

"It has destroyed legal certainty and justice and caused material losses for those who are victims."

"Court Mafia" is the term used by Indonesians to refer to corrupt collusion between the judiciary and police.

The president made no mention of what action would be taken against officials incriminated in the wiretap recordings, having earlier called only for those involved to be suspended from duty.

Chief detective Duadji was allegedly at the centre of a conspiracy involving police, prosecutors and a corrupt businessman to fabricate criminal charges against two deputy chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The commissioners, Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto, were arrested by police last week but were released Tuesday after the KPK's wiretap recordings exposing the apparent conspiracy were played in court.

The resignations of Duadji and Ritonga, however, may not be enough to calm public anger.

More than 860,000 people have joined a group on social networking website Facebook supporting the two KPK investigators, who are still facing charges of extortion and abuse of power that the police refuse to drop.

One of the alleged conspirators caught on the wiretap is heard whispering that the alleged plot against the KPK has the support of "RI-1," a reference to Yudhoyono.

The president has angrily denied any involvement.

Analysts said Yudhoyono was under extreme pressure to prove the sincerity of his much-touted anti-corruption drive.

"It's not enough that only Susno (Duadji) and Ritonga resign, the national police chief and attorney general should also resign if they still want to be respected," said University of Indonesia political analyst Arbi Sanit.

"After they resign, all of them need to be prosecuted legally."

The KPK has made enemies across the spectrum of Indonesian government and administration for its successful prosecutions and its far-reaching powers to wiretap suspects and probe their bank accounts.

But it has given hope to ordinary Indonesians and foreign investors in a country that ranks 126 out of 180 on Transparency International's corruption perceptions index for 2008, alongside Honduras and Libya.