Police won’t challenge suspension of probe into KPK leaders

The National Police says it has no plan to challenge state prosecutors’ decision to halt a criminal investigation into suspended Corruption Eradication Commission leaders, saying it respected the policy.

Deputy spokesman for the National Police Brig. Gen. Sulistyo Ishak said Tuesday the police had had their job done and it was the privilege of the Attorney General’s Office to drop the bribery, extortion and abuse of power cases implicating deputy KPK chiefs Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.

“When the police completed the dossiers [of Bibit and Chandra] that was the final action we could take. We have to respect the legal process beyond it,” Sulistyo said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the South Jakarta prosecutor’s office officially issued the much-awaited warrant to stop the prosecution process of Bibit and Chandra, citing broader social and legal reasons.

Sulistyo said the police had no capacity to comment on the AGO’s decision, but made sure it would not deter the force from upholding the law in the future.

The police, he said, have not yet considered a move to file a pretrial lawsuit against the termination of the probe into the KPK leaders.

In response to a fact finding team who concluded that law enforcers had forcibly attempted to implicate Bibit and Chandra, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for an out-of-court settlement to end the dispute.