LPSK Refuses to Protect Legislators, NTB Prosecutor Opens New Suspects

Head of the NTB Prosecutor's Office, Wahyudi. ANTARA/Dhimas B.P.

MATARAM - The West Nusa Tenggara High Prosecutor's Office (Kejati NTB) held a case of alleged gratification involving members of the NTB DPRD following the rejection of a request for protection from 15 legislators who received bribes by the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK).

Head of the NTB Prosecutor's Office Wahyudi said that the title of the case was carried out to see the possibility of additional suspects from among the recipients of bribes.

"We will see what the development is like. This matter must be viewed as a whole," said Wahyudi in Mataram, Antara, Friday, January 6.

Previously, Deputy Chairman of the NTB DPRD, Susilaningtias, stated that the request for legal and physical protection submitted by dozens of NTB DPRD members was rejected because it did not meet the provisions of Article 28 paragraph (1) of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31 of 2014 concerning the Protection of Witnesses and Victims.

From the results of the LPSK study, the reason for the application for protection in the form of depositing bribe money to the prosecutor at a time when the case was in the investigation stage was considered not to meet the requirements. In addition, the threat conveyed in the application letter is not strong enough to be the basis for granting protection.

Although he rejected the request, LPSK emphasized that he would still monitor the process of handling the case until it was completed in court.

LPSK also opened the opportunity for the three suspects, members of the NTB DPRD, to apply as justice collaborators with the condition of being willing to uncover the involvement of other parties in the case.

"It's good if they want to uncover the role of others. We can provide protection as long as they apply as a justice collaborator," said Susilaningtias.

The three NTB DPRD members who have been named as suspects are IJU, HK, and MNI. The three of them are currently being detained by the public prosecutor.

The prosecutor named the three as suspects by applying Article 5 paragraph (1) of the Indonesian Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Corruption Crimes.

In the case file, the prosecutor said the three suspects played a role as a bribe giver to dozens of NTB DPRD members, including 15 legislators who had applied for protection to the LPSK.

The value of the bribes received by each member of the NTB DPRD is estimated to reach Rp. 200 million. From the return of dozens of members, the prosecutor has confiscated money totaling around Rp. 2 billion.

The NTB Prosecutor's Office considers that the return of the money does not remove the criminal element, because the recipients did not report the gratification to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) within the time limit specified for state organizers.

In the context of criminal law, the prosecutor emphasized that the acceptance of bribes is a formal offense, so that the crime is considered to have been completed since the act of violating the law was committed.

Thus, the bribe recipients in this case have the potential to be held criminally responsible as stipulated in Article 5 paragraph (2) and paragraph (3) of the Corruption Eradication Law, the same as that applied to the three bribe-giving suspects.