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t a time when the police are pressing ahead with charges against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders, apparently in retaliation for the KPK'€™s move to name National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a suspect, the police have allowed a low-ranking, high-income officer First Adj. Labora Sitorus to scoff at our justice system.

The police may even be protecting Labora, as Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly said the '€œsecurity apparatus'€ and local residents had prevented state prosecutors from implementing a 15-year prison term handed down to him by the Supreme Court for money laundering last October.

The police, in this case the West Papua Police chief, should have no difficulty ordering Labora to surrender to prosecutors in compliance with the law.

So when a petty police officer challenges the enforcement of the law and his institution fails to take action against him, something fishy must be going on. Speculation is rife that the investigation of Labora will lead investigators to powerful figures, either in or outside the force. That he can act above the law, as evident in his defiance of a legally binding Supreme Court verdict, is indicative of this assumption.

The police have long been criticized for their performance. Corrupt practices are allegedly abound in the police '€” ranging from traffic officers asking for money from or accepting bribes from motorists, to fat bank accounts associated with police generals '€” and may have prevented internal reform from taking effect.

Public confidence in the police has been consistently low, unfortunately partly because of the impunity that has helped high-ranking officers evade justice. None of the police generals linked to the fat-bank saga have been prosecuted. Police leaders have cleared them of any violations, including Budi.

Now that the police are at full throttle, striking back at the KPK leaders following Budi being implicated in a corruption case, the public has the right to question why the police opt to remain silent in response to Labora'€™s failure to respect the Supreme Court'€™s ruling.

Labora, posted to Raja Ampat, West Papua, stole the show in 2013 when the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) discovered Rp 1.5 trillion (US$119 million) in his bank accounts. The Sorong District Court sentenced him to two years in prison and fined him Rp 500 million. Following an appeal, the Jayapura High Court increased his sentence to eight years.

Labora left Sorong Penitentiary in March 2013 to seek medical treatment at the Sorong Navy Hospital, but never returned because of a detention release letter from prison warden Isak Wanggai.

We do not know what Labora has done and who he has met since his release from prison, but no other suspect has been named in the money laundering case.

It would be better for the police to settle the Labora case beyond doubt, rather than attack the KPK'€™s leaders.