SUSNO TESTIFIES
Former National Police Chief Detective, Susno Duadji testified at the South Jakarta District Court on Thursday in the trial of graft defendant Sjahril Djohan. Susno dismissed allegations that Syahril had promised him 3.5 Billion Rupiah or 388,000 US Dollars in return for unfreezing the bank accounts of former tax official and graft suspect Gayus Tambunan. Susno also said Sjahril asked him to pay extra attention to the arowana fraud case because one of the stake-holders of the fish farm company linked to the case was then Deputy National Police Makbul Padmanegara. He admitted that Sjahril hand over any money. Contrary to Susno, Sjahril insists he gave 500 Million Rupiah to Susno and denied naming former Deputy National Police Chief Padmanegara as one of the stakeholders at the arowana fish company.03.09.2010. 04:51
YUDHOYONO'S APPROVAL DECLINES
The Indonesian Survey Institute or LSI reports that Yudhoyono's Approval Rating has gone down recently. It's mainly caused by the public's disappointment on how the government is handling the gas cylinder explosions, and Yudhoyono's leadership style which some believe is too slow. The report shows the President's popularity has declined more than 20 percent in the first year of his second tenure. In 2009, when he was re-elected for his second term in office, public approval increased up to 85 percent but later dropped to 66 percent. Several factors that triggered public approval included, the government's performance in handling the series of gas canister blasts, electricity bill hike and also the rise in basic food prices. 1,800 respondents from across the country took part in the survey.03.09.2010. 03:45
KPK NAMED NEW SUSPECTS
The Anti-Graft Commission, KPK has named twenty six legislators serving between 2004 and 2009 in a bribery case. The suspects include Golkar's Paskah Suzeta and PDIP's Panda Nababan, who were both involved in the election of Bank Indonesia Senior Deputy Governor, Miranda Goeltom back in 2004. KPK Deputy Chairman, Bibit Samad Riyanto said the names of the 26 legislators were revealed after a thorough investigation, following the trials of Hamka Yandhu and Dodi Makmum Murod who were defendants in the same case. The trials revealed that Miranda bribed 44 lawmakers with travel cheques to vote her as Senior Deputy Governor of Central Bank.02.09.2010. 04:34