UPDATE 2-Top Indonesia law officials to resign over scandal

JAKARTA, Nov 5 - Two senior Indonesian law enforcement officials will resign, police and government officials said on Thursday, following a public outcry over a suspected plot to undermine the country's anti-corruption agency.

A top police officer and the deputy attorney-general resigned -- a rare case of Indonesian officials taking responsibility for wrongdoing.

The resignations came after a respected team of legal experts, appointed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this week to investigate the suspected plot, recommended that the two men should resign.

"I'm relieved and happy because it justifies the system works and that the president is doing the right thing," said political commentator Wimar Witoelar, who has referred to the scandal as Indonesia's Watergate.

However, analysts said the resignations alone would not solve the problems of corruption within the police and attorney-general's office, and further reforms and a shake-up of the key law enforcement agencies were needed.

"If this opportunity is not used by the president to reform the institutions, I am afraid people would use the same way as in the 1998 to do the reform themselves, and it will not be a pretty sight," said Imam Prasodjo, a sociologist at the University of Indonesia, referring to the 1998 riots that forced former President Suharto to resign.

Transparency International has previously named the police and judiciary as among Indonesia's most corrupt institutions and the prospect of a clean-up of these agencies would be positive for reform.

Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto -- two of four deputy chiefs at the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, which has been at the forefront of the fight against corruption -- were detained last week.

Police said they were suspected of graft and abuse of power.

The two KPK officials denied the allegations, and in their defence submitted tapes to the Constitutional Court of conversations between a businessman and several people alleged to be in the police and the attorney-general's office, in which the various players discussed plans to undermine the KPK.

The tape recordings, which were played in court this week, were done as part of a KPK investigation of Indonesian businessman Anggoro Widjojo and his brother Anggodo.

Indonesians have expressed outrage at the apparent attempts by the businessman and officials to harm the KPK, and there were widespread calls for those involved to be fired.

Police refused to charge Anggodo this week, despite the evidence from the tapes, prompting even further public outrage. Susno Duadji, chief of detectives in the national police force, and Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga were among the various law enforcement agency officials named in the tapes. They could not be reached for comment.

National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri, when asked by reporters whether Duadji would resign over the case, said: "He will definitely resign, but we are following procedures."

Attorney general Hendarman Supandji, when asked about Ritonga's status, said: "Yesterday, he has stated his resignation. The written statement will be submitted to me today."