Former National Police chief detective, Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, said here Tuesday he was
willing to open talks to settle his problem with University of Indonesia (UI) Professor Bambang Widodo Umar.
Susno has sent two letters to Umar after the latter told Tempo daily newspaper last week that if National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri picked Susno as his deputy then it would be against the will of the general public.
In his letters, Susno claimed that the statement was defamatory and demanded Umar apologize to him and issue a retraction of his statement in all media outlets.
Through his lawyer, Johnny Situwanda, Susno said he would wait until Thursday to see if Umar invited him for dialogue to set the problem straight.
“We will wait until Dec.24, which is the deadline of our latest letter, for Bambang to initiate dialogue. If we hear nothing by then, he leaves us with no choice but to report this problem to the police,” Johnny told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Susno’s willingness to engage in dialogue was apparently a response to an earlier invitation by Umar.
Separately, Umar expressed appreciation that Susno was still willing to discuss the issue before taking it to court.
“Off course we are glad to hear that Susno is wiling to have a discussion over this matter. But I still need to consult with my lawyers before we get to the discussion table,” he said.
In Tempo’s Monday edition last week, Umar said that if Bambang appointed Susno, the public will see that the police didn’t listen to their aspirations.
On Monday, Umar said, however, Susno misunderstood his statement.
“Apparently there is a misunderstanding here. Susno may think that my statement was defamatory. In fact my statement was only referring to public records about Susno,” he said.
Umar said Susno’s name was often mentioned by the media since he was implicated in the Bank
Century scandal, including alleged involvement in fabrication of evidence against the leaders of
the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), along with allegations that he went to Singapore
to meet KPK graft fugitive Anggoro Widjojo.
Susno handed over his post to Insp. Gen. Ito Sumardi after public pressure following Susno’s alleged role in fabricating evidence against two deputy leaders of the KPK.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono faced mounting pressure to sack Susno and even Bambang after the Constitutional Court publicly played wire-tapped conversations between businessman Anggodo Widjojo and several high-ranking officers from the National Police and the AGO.
The conversations revealed an alleged plot to frame the KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, and implied that Susno might be involved in the fabrication of evidence.
Susno claimed himself innocent in all cases, saying he had been cleared by the police’s Internal Affairs division after being questioned twice.
