JAKARTA. Former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali filed a pretrial petition at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday in an attempt to have the court invalidate his suspect status in connection with alleged graft in the organizing of haj pilgrimages in 2010 through 2013.

Humprhey R. Djemat, a member of the legal team accompanying Suryadharma in the case, said he submitted the pretrial petition because the charges laid against his client were not clear and the KPK was apparently lacking evidence to bring the case to court.

He said the commission had never revealed the losses the state suffered from the case.

“Bambang Widjojanto said in January, the losses caused in the case to the state would be checked. The commission has yet to find state losses from the case,” he said after registering the pretrial petition at the court in Jakarta on Monday.

Suryadharma filed the pretrial petition after he failed to show up to undergo questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) building in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

Humprhey said his legal team and his client had obtained the impression that the KPK’s move to name his client a suspect was apparently based on political pressure.

Johnson Panjaitan, another member of Suryadharma’s legal team, said his client’s suspect status was linked with an article on the Kompasiana website entitled “Abraham Samad’s Glass House” about the suspended KPK chairman.

“The name of Suryadharma has been mentioned in the first paragraph. At that time, [Suryadharma] supported presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto,” he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

According to him, Suryadharma’s suspect status was political because the KPK named him a suspect only two days after Prabowo and running mate Hatta Rajasa registered as presidential and vice-presidential candidates, respectively, with the General Elections Commission (KPU).

The two lawyers said the case was also related to the “Abraham Samad’s Glass House” post because the latter wanted to be Jokowi’s running mate as vice-presidential candidate.

Editor: Hendra Gunawan