Indonesia leader urged to make anti-graft reforms

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A presidential fact-finding team has advised Indonesia's leader to initiate deep reforms to tackle corruption after it found that senior law enforcers tried to frame anti-graft officials on fabricated charges of bribery and blackmail.

A 31-page report by eight experts was handed to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday. The scandal risks denting Yudhoyono's popularity after his July re-election by a landslide.

The team said the president should make eradicating all forms of corruption and irregularities a priority _ including what it called a "legal mafia" in law enforcement agencies.

Infighting between prosecutors and police and anti-corruption authorities has become a serious challenge for Yudhoyono's new government to tackle what is an endemic problem in the vast Southeast Asian nation. The judiciary and parliament are also viewed as deeply graft-ridden.

In Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index released Tuesday, Indonesia ranks 111th out of 180 countries. A low ranking reflects high levels of public sector corruption.

In their report, the presidential team found that senior police and prosecutors tried to frame Corruption Eradication Commission officials Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto on bogus charges of bribery and blackmail.

The report said that the charges should be dropped and Yudhoyono should punish officials involved in the case. It also recommended investigating the powerful national police detective chief, Lt. Gen. Susno Duadji, whom they alleged played a pivotal role in trying to undermine the anti-graft body.

Duadji has denied the allegations.