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Jokowi must establish independent team on Bambang case: Experts
Experts have urged President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo to immediately establish an independent team to solve the case related to the arrest of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto
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xperts have urged President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to immediately establish an independent team to solve the case related to the arrest of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto.
A senior researcher of the Anti-Corruption Study Center at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Zainal Arifin Mochtar, said the KPK deputy chairman's case should not be handled by the National Police as it was suspected that a number of police officers involved in the arrest were witnesses in corruption cases allegedly involving Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, the National Police chief candidate.
'The President must also issue a government regulation in lieu of law [Perppu], which can hopefully safeguard law enforcers involved in corruption eradication as such protection is not guaranteed in Law No.30/2002 on the KPK,' he said after a joint declaration by Yogyakarta academics at UGM on Sunday.
A number of academics and legal experts attending the joint declaration also urged Bambang not to resign from his current position as KPK deputy chairman although the National Police have named him as a suspect for allegedly ordering a witness to commit perjury at the Constitutional Court in 2010 in a regional election dispute case in Waringin Barat, Central Kalimantan.
'We urge Bambang not to back out of the KPK as such a retreat would show that the commission has lost,' Indonesian Islamic University of Yogyakarta (UII) deputy rector Abdul Jamil said.
A senior lawyer from Yogyakarta, Kamal Firdaus, who is reportedly to join Bambang's legal team, said the KPK deputy chairman should not be criminalized.
'At that time Bambang was working as a lawyer and based on existing laws, a lawyer has a right to impunity and cannot be criminalized,' he said. (ebf)(+++)
