Police deploy officers to ‘safeguard’ KPK

Saving KPK: Activists from all walks of life hold up banner declaring “Selamatkan KPK” (Save the KPK—Corruption Eradication Commission) at the KPK headquarters in Jakarta early Saturday. Activists protested following a police attempt to arrest KPK investigator Comr. Novel Baswedan, who is one of the investigators working on a graft scandal involving the Police Traffic Corps. The police claimed that they were investigating a 2004 murder case involving Novel. (Antara/Widodo S.Jusuf)The National Police have dispatched a platoon of officers to the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) headquarters following a night-long protest by activists.

The activists staged a vigil after police officers arrived at the KPK on Friday evening to arrest a police officer seconded to the commission as an investigator.

The officers on Friday arrived just hours after the KPK interrogated Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo as a suspect in a bribery scandal.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Saturday that sending the platoon was not interfere with or trying to intimidate the KPK.

“Please don’t get it wrong when seeing so many cops around the building. We deployed the officers to guard the area in anticipation of other rallies,” Rikwanto said.

“This is just an ordinary measure we take to guard a vital place. We don’t want the possible rallies to end in riots or to cause severe traffic congestion.”

Djoko, the first active duty police general to be named a suspect by the KPK, was questioned for the first time by the KPK on Friday in connection with the scandal surrounding the procurement of vehicle simulators for the National Police traffic Corps. (aml/swd)