Indonesian police deny framing anti-graft chief

Indonesia's police force denied Wednesday it was trying to frame the country's top corruption fighter for murder, after a key state witness testified that he was part of a conspiracy to fabricate evidence.

National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri admitted the much-maligned force had been "pushed into a corner" by the shocking court testimony of police officer Wiliardi Wizar on Tuesday.

But he rejected Wizar's claims that he had been pressured by senior officers to frame former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chief Antasari Azhar for the mob-style shooting in March of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen.

"How can a commissioner general (Wizar), who is being investigated by (lesser officers), be forced?" Danuri asked when reporters confronted him for a comment about the allegations.

"The investigators have a recording of the interrogation. It's up to the people whether they accept this information."

Wizar's statements in the South Jakarta District Court were a dramatic reversal for a prosecution witness who had been called to testify against Azhar in a case that has gripped the nation for months.

Instead of supporting the prosecution's case, he said police had offered to clear him of related charges if he agreed to make false statements implicating Azhar in the murder.

"The content of the April 30 police investigation report is all lies," Wizar told the court, prompting Azhar to burst into tears.

In separate testimony on Monday at the trial of the alleged shooter, Wizar said the murder had been ordered "directly by the national police chief", according to the state-run Antara news agency.

Azhar, 56, has accused police and prosecutors of seeking to frame him in revenge for the KPK's campaign against entrenched graft.

The anti-corruption commission has led successful prosecutions against police, prosecutors, lawmakers, bankers and businessman over the past five years, and has far-reaching powers to wiretap suspects and probe bank accounts.

Police allege Azhar masterminded the murder after Zulkarnaen attempted to blackmail him over a Jakarta hotel room tryst with the businessman's 22-year-old golf caddy wife.

Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna showed reporters footage of Wizar's interrogation in a bid to prove that he was under no pressure to implicate the suspended KPK chief.

"He was never forced to give the testimony. There's no effort by police to criminalise the KPK," he said after presenting the brief video clip, which showed Wizar looking relaxed under questioning but otherwise proved nothing.

Danuri has been under pressure to resign since KPK wiretaps revealed an alleged plot among police and prosecutors to frame two other senior corruption investigators as part of a broad conspiracy to muzzle the anti-graft agency.

The country's top detective and the deputy chief prosecutor stepped down last week over the wiretap recordings, which exposed entrenched corruption across the country's judicial system.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected in July on promises of clean government and economic growth, pledged Thursday to use the first 100 days of his second term to stamp out what he called the "court mafia".

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, who is also under pressure to resign, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that he was aware of the existence of "case brokers, extortion scandals and so forth" in the judiciary.

"However I need help. I'm not reforming 10 people, but 20,000," he was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.

Former KPK deputy chief Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas said corruption in Indonesia's courts was so "horrifying" that he feared for Wizar's life.

"I think he's in danger ... so we have to protect him, how I don't know," he told AFP.