Muhammad Nazaruddin on Tuesday struck back at the Democratic Party for having dumped him as its treasurer, accusing other members of having also violated its code of ethics.

Nazaruddin said his dismissal as general treasurer by the party’s ethics council on Monday was unfair and that many other Democrats, including Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng and ethics council secretary Amir Syamsuddin, had also conducted shady deals.

“Speaking about violations of the party’s code of ethics, many other Democrats are at it as well,” he told reporters.

“For example, Amir was also a lawyer for a client that had misused the BLBI [Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance] program.

“He’s always selling the party’s name at the Supreme Court. That’s surely in violation of the party’s ethics.”

Nazaruddin said he was sure Amir and Andi were behind the decision to remove him as treasurer in order to divert attention from a recent bribery scandal involving the Sports Ministry. He also accused Janedjri M. Gaffar, secretary general of the Constitutional Court, of having repeatedly abused his authority for personal gain in relation to court projects.

Janedjri earlier accused Nazaruddin of giving him an “unsolicited payment” of 120,000 Singapore dollars ($96,000) in September, which he says he promptly returned.

“I know it all and will reveal it publicly,” Nazaruddin said. “It’s just like a thief calling someone else a thief.”

A source close to Nazaruddin who declined to be identified told the Jakarta Globe that his camp believed Andi had been trying to distance himself from a graft case allegedly involving his ministry’s secretary general, Wafid Muharram.

Wafid was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over a suspect deal linked to a project to build the athletes’ village in Palembang for November’s Southeast Asian Games.

Mohammad El Idris, an executive from the private contractor awarded the contract for the project, and suspected broker Mindo Rosaline Manullang have also been arrested for their alleged roles in the case.

“They don’t want the case to unravel all the trickery of his ministry,” the source said.

Andi, meanwhile, has denied the allegations.

“I don’t know how the decision [to dismiss Nazaruddin] was made because it was taken entirely by the ethics council,” he said.

Andi said allegations by Nazaruddin that he had abused his authority to appoint companies owned or linked to his brother, Choel Mallarangeng, to deal with projects related to the opening ceremony of the SEA Games were untrue. “The accusations are fabricated,” he said.

In a statement sent to the Globe, Choel also denied the accusations, dismissing them as “empty accusations not based on any facts.”

“I understand that Nazaruddin is currently panicking in the face of a number of issues affecting him, but those cases should be faced wisely and by always relying on legal facts and not by rather indiscriminately throwing baseless accusations around,” he said.

Choel said that the Mallarangeng family “has never sought profit from his [Andi’s] position as sports and youth minister.”

Andi also denied that rival factions had caused rifts within the Democratic Party and were bent on pulling the rug from under each other’s feet. “Our party has been solid until now,” he said.

E.E. Mangindaan, a senior member of the party’s ethics council, meanwhile, said Nazaruddin should back up his accusations with evidence.

Earlier on Tuesday, KPK deputy chairman M. Jasin told reporters that the Constitutional Court had filed a report on its claims against Nazaruddin and that the matter would be probed thoroughly.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/fired-nazaruddin-lashes-out-at-democrats/443050

Fired Nazaruddin Lashes Out at Democrats

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