"I thought it was dangerous as he (Nazaruddin) gave money while there was no case involving him being handled by the Court. So, when MK secretary general reported the matter, I immediately ordered that the money be returned on the same day," the MK chairman said here on Saturday.
He said that he ordered the return of the money because he was afraid it was part of an effort to destroy the Constitutional Court.
The handing over of 120,000 Singapore dollars by Nazaruddin to Janedjri M Gaffar took place at a restaurant in the Kemang area, South Jakarta, in September 2010.
The money was then returned by Janedjri on September 27, 2010.
"He called the secretary general and handed over the money. When he was asked about the money, Nasaruddin did not answer but went away. The MK secretary general then phoned him to return the money, Nazaruddin rejected and said the money was a gift for the secretary general," Mahfud said.
He said that the Janedjri reported to him that he had received mysterious money. "Then I thought it was dangerous and than I ordered that it should be returned," he said.
He said he was suspicious at two motives, namely as part of a conspiracy to ruin the MK or as a bribe for any legal case he will handle in the future.
Mahfud said it could be a conspiracy where sometime in the future he could disclose that MK was not clean and the MK chairman could be bribed.
"Other motive could be that he wants to settle legal cases sometime in the future. If he wants to handle a case for a district head, he could say that the MK is already in hands. So this is quite dangerous because it could ruin the MK," he said.
(SYS/A014/H-YH)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
