Attorney general defends decision to clear Wahid

Members of parliament vote to pass a second censure motion against Wahid

By CNN's Hope Ngo

(CNN) -- Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman says his decision to clear President Abdurrahman Wahid of two graft charges was not politically motivated.

Darusman told CNN that his office concluded that Wahid had nothing to do with a financial scandal involving a US$2 million donation from the Sultan of Brunei after three months of investigation.

His decision was announced late Monday, less than 72 hours before parliament was scheduled to take up an impeachment motion against the president.

"It had nothing to do with the president, who was in the know (about the donation), but did not get involved in it," he said.

"By law, donations don't need to be listed or reported to the government. My office has been able to trace the money, where it went, and what it was used for," Darusman said.

He also said his office was now trying to get to the heart of a second scandal, dubbed "Buloggate" by Indonesian media. Wahid's masseur was convicted of embezzling funds from the state food agency, Bulog, and the president is accused of playing a part in the crime.

But Darusman said that as far as his investigations have shown, there is no legal basis to continue impeachment proceedings against Wahid on corruption charges, "because no initial evidence is available to implicate the president in any way."

A political affair

But the revelations are not likely to keep Indonesia's parliament from starting impeachment proceedings against the beleaguered president on Wednesday.

CNN's Atika Shubert says lawmakers are aware they don't have enough evidence to implicate Wahid on the financial scandals.

"But (they say) his faults have gone beyond the involvement in corruption, into violating state guidelines and not developing an effective government," she said.

"The case can't be more politicized than it already is," Darusman said.

"They (the lawmakers) seem to want to separate the legal dimension from the political dimension, which is rather confusing for us, because the whole politics started out from the fact that the president is accused of committing misdemeanors," he said.

"But now that we've concluded that the president is clear of any wrongdoing, where do we stand on this now?" he said.

Darusman said he would stand by his findings, even if he is accused of political bias.

"What we (the Attorney General's office) are trying to do is make available to parliament the latest findings and information, and allow parliament to make the right decisions based on these findings," he said.