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Protection agency insists on taking Susno from police
The Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) said it would press ahead with its decision to relocate Susno Duadji from the police detention facility despite the National Police's refusal to abide by its request
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he Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) said it would press ahead with its decision to relocate Susno Duadji from the police detention facility despite the National Police's refusal to abide by its request.
"According to the 2006 Witness Protection Law, any decision made by the LPSK should be supported by all related institutions. This is ordered by the law," the agency's commissioner for assistance, compensation and restitution, Lili P. Siregar, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
The witness protection agency has agreed to take custody of Susno after he agreed to present relevant information regarding the graft cases and said he would try to comply with the LPSK's rules in regards to safety and not discuss the case with any party without its consent.
Susno, former National Police chief detective, filed his request for protection on May 7, saying he had frequently received threats following his controversial testimony that the National Police had been plagued by case brokering practices.
Lili said she would meet the police soon after conducting an internal meeting on the case Monday.
"The LPSK believes that the witness protection program for Susno is crucial because he is a witness and an informant who possesses important information," Lili said.
Ari Yusuf Amir, a lawyer representing Susno, said that, "The agency plans to relocate Susno to an undisclosed safe house soon and will announce Susno's relocation status on Monday or Tuesday."
The police said Sunday they had would not comply with a request made by the agency to relocate Susno to a safe house. "We have no plan whatsoever to relocate Pak Susno from his current detention center because he is an active policeman," detective chief Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said.
Sumardi did not elaborate on why this would deem Susno ineligible for witness protection.
Susno is not the first whistle-blower of a high-profile corruption case in the country, but he is the first aiming to unravel corruption in the police force. Analysts said it made his case more complicated.
Susno has been named a suspect in two graft cases. He was accused of taking bribes from a lawyer while investigating a graft case involving an arowana fish farm and of embezzling security funds for the West Java gubernatorial election.
The police indicated they might charge Susno in another case after they named his former lawyer Johnny Situwanda a graft suspect for allegedly acting as Susno's middleman.
Johnny allegedly transferred money totaling Rp 6 billion (US$648,000) to Susno's bank accounts in 2008 when Susno was chief detective.
A copy of a document, believed to be official data, states that Susno's bank accounts have also received illegal money transfers from a businesswoman and the public works agency head in Bengkulu province.
One of Susno's lawyers, Henry Yosodiningrat, said his client had not been grilled in connection with Johnny's case. Henry said the case might be part of the police's efforts to continue "attacking Susno". (ipa)
