Adianto P. Simamora and Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 03/22/2010 9:16 AM
Experts called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Sunday to set up an independent team to investigate allegations made by former police detective chief Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, that high-ranking police officers were involved in graft to the tune of Rp 25 billion.
Susno’s report should be used as momentum to clean up the country’s law enforcement institutions, including the police, the group said.
“Ideally, the alleged case brokerage at the National Police [as Susno reported to the public] should be handled by the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] but since it is now investigating the Bank Century bailout, in which Susno was also allegedly involved, it will be difficult for the KPK to remain objective,” noted lawyer Frans Winarta told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
“I really hope an independent team can be formed to make it clear who the real criminals are in Susno’s report.”
Susno announced to the media that two brigadier generals, who he identified only by their initials R.E (referring to Raja Erizman) and E.I. (Edmon Ilyas), as well as several middle-ranking officials, had acted as case brokers in money laundering and tax evasion cases.
The case came into the media spotlight last week when Susno publicly accused the senior officers of sharing almost Rp 25 billion allegedly amassed by a tax official identified as Gayus Tambunan. The official was investigated for allegedly accepting bribes from taxpayers and laundered ill-gotten money.
Susno also said “the second in rank”, understood to be a reference to former deputy National Police chief Makbul Padmanegara, had also backed up the case brokering.
Frans said the independent team should consist of “clean” figures from the Attorney General’s Office, KPK and National Police, and should report directly to Yudhoyono.
“I am sure the case will disappear if it is handled by the police corps,” he said.
Susno is set to appear before police investigators today (Monday) to clarify his claims.
Police observer from the University of Indonesia, Bambang Widodo Umar, said a third party, such as the KPK, was needed to investigate Susno’s statement to get more objective results.
“Then the National Police should accept the result,” he said. “If the KPK finds Susno is lying, then he must be punished.”
Legal expert Bambang Widjojanto cast doubts as to whether investigations could go anywhere if cases of alleged case brokering in the police force were handled only by the police, saying there must be an involvement from other parties such as the KPK or an independent fact-finding team.
“It will be difficult to believe the results if the testimonies come from people who are also implicated in the same crime,” he said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com on Sunday.
Bambang said that even the KPK may not be really objective in the case because some of its investigators were recruited from the police force.
“The other concern is that the KPK could have conflicts of interest [if it handles Susno’s report] because of its previous legal case with the police,” he said.
