T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Sunday that its legal division team had prepared arguments to face the pretrial hearing of a lawsuit against its decision to slap a graft suspect status onto National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan.

KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha said that the antigraft body'€™s legal team had clear legal grounds for naming Budi a suspect and that the decision to name a person a suspect was not part of the material that should be examined at a pretrial hearing.

'€œWe will argue with Article 11 of Law No. 30/2002 [on the KPK] that has mandated the KPK to prosecute [government officials like] BG [Budi Gunawan] in his capacity as a bureau chief at the National Police,'€ Priharsa said.

Article 11 of the law on the KPK allows the anticorruption body to investigate and prosecute graft offenses that allegedly involve law enforcers, state officials and other individuals who engage in corruption crimes, as well as cases that attract public attention and that cause state losses worth at least Rp 1 billion (US$79,000).

The National Police has filed a pretrial petition with the South Jakarta District Court in response to the KPK'€™s move naming Budi a graft suspect prior to any questioning, something that Budi used to justify his decision to ignore two summonses to be interrogated by the antigraft body.

After being adjourned last Monday because of the KPK'€™s absence, the first hearing is scheduled for this Monday.

Budi, who passed a confirmation hearing with the House of Representatives over his nomination as leader of the police institution, was named a suspect for financial crimes after the KPK found Budi, in his capacity as the head of the Career Development Bureau at the National Police from 2004 to 2006, had amassed a total of Rp 95 billion from alleged bribes and gratuities, including from bribes paid by officers in pursuit of higher positions in the force.

In retaliation, the National Police named KPK commissioner Bambang Widjojanto a suspect for allegedly ordering a witness to commit perjury at the Constitutional Court in 2010 in a case related to a regional election dispute in West Kotawaringin, Central Kalimantan.

Moves to prosecute other KPK commissioners have followed, including politically driven ones initiated by politicians from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) leveled at the institution'€™s chairman Abraham Samad, moves that apparently have gained support from other political parties in a collective effort to weaken the only trusted anticorruption body in the country.

However, mounting support has continued to be expressed for the KPK.

In addition to ongoing rallies staged to encourage the KPK to continue all legal proceedings against Budi, as well as other graft cases, activists and legal observers firmly support the KPK against the pretrial move.

Reiterating similar remarks made by other supporters, former prosecutor Adnan Paslyadja said during a discussion in Jakarta on Sunday that Article 77 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) did not allow the decision to name a suspect to be challenged in court.

'€œThus, the legal process against Budi should proceed even if there is a pretrial hearing,'€ Adnan said.

'€œTherefore, it is misleading to stop the process in order to wait for the pretrial ruling,'€ he emphasized.