KPK Names Democratic Party Chair Anas a Suspect in Hambalang Case
Almost a year after his name was first mentioned in the Rp 2.5 trillion ($257 million) Hambalang sports center scandal, Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum was on Friday declared a suspect in the case by the national antigraft body.
The announcement is expected to end Anas’s resistance against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s attempts to remove him from the party.
Johan Budi, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said that the agency had found two pieces of solid evidence to allow them to declare Anas a suspect for receiving kickbacks in connection to the project during his time as a legislator.
“A.U. was charged with accepting a bribe under Article 12 of the 1999 Anti-Corruption Law,” Johan told a televised press conference on Friday night, referring to Anas by his initials.
Anas faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted in the case. The minimum sentence for the charge is four years in prison.
Anas’s status as a suspect could immediately end his political career as Yudhoyono, the chief patron of the ruling party, can now use it as a pretext to remove him from the party after failing do so in the last several months. Anas’s alleged involvement in the graft case has been cited by analysts as the main cause behind the party’s slump in popularity.
In a recent press conference while he was abroad, Yudhoyono called on the KPK to quickly decide on Anas’s status, with observers noting that the president could not move directly to oust him because of the wide support Anas enjoys from party members at the regional level.
Under Yudhoyono’s pressure, Anas, together with other members of the Democratic Party, last week signed a written statement that they would resign immediately if any of them was named a suspect by the KPK.
Within minutes of the KPK announcement, senior Democratic Party politicians demanded that Anas resign from his post as the party chairman.
Marzuki Alie, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said that all Democrats agreed that suspects could not serve as officials in the party.
“Yes, he should resign based on what he signed. The board of patrons will decide on this immediately,” Marzuki said.
Max Sopacua, a Democrat deputy chairman, said that after Anas was named a suspect, the board of patrons would take over and decide whether the party would hold an extraordinary congress to chose a new chairman, or just to appoint an acting chairman to run the party.
Muhammad Nazaruddin, a graft convict and former Democrat treasurer, has repeatedly accused Anas of taking Rp 100 billion in kickbacks to rig the awarding of the Hambalang contract. The money was allegedly used by Anas to bribe party members to vote for him as chairman in 2010.
