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Budi Gunawan to face questioning on Friday
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has said it will question National Police chief candidate Comr
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he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has said it will question National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan on Friday, for the first time since the commission declared him a graft suspect on Jan. 13.
Speculation is rife that Budi will be detained after his questioning as the anti-graft body has often immediately locked up graft suspects following their first questioning on Fridays, prompting many to give it the moniker 'spooky Friday'.
'I've just received information from KPK investigators that BG will be questioned on Friday,' KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha said at KPK headquarters on Thursday night, referring to Budi by his initials.
He refused to confirm whether Budi would be detained on Friday, saying that it was the prerogative of investigators to decide on the matter.
The KPK has named Budi a suspect for financial misdeeds after finding that in his capacity as the head of the Career Development Bureau at the National Police headquarters from 2004 to 2006, he amassed a total of Rp 95 billion (US$7 million) allegedly collected from bribes and gratuities, including bribes paid by officers in pursuit of higher positions in the force.
There is also a suspicion that Budi will skip Friday's questioning due to the fact that since Monday last week, the KPK has attempted to summon a number of active police generals and middle-ranking officers, who allegedly paid bribes to Budi to get their promotions, as witnesses in the case but none of them have turned up for questioning.
The high-profile graft suspects who were detained on 'spooky' Fridays are former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, Democratic Party politicians Andi Mallarangeng and Angelina Sondakh as well as suspended Banten governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah and former Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor Miranda S. Goeltom. (ebf)
