Four witnesses presented by the legal team of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan on the second day of his pretrial hearing on Tuesday failed to convince the judge that the Corruption Eradication Commission'€™s (KPK) decision to name Budi a graft suspect was marred with irregularities.

The legal team of Budi '€” President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s pick for the next police chief '€” brought former KPK investigator Hendy F. Kurniawan, an active police officer; National Police officers Adj. Sr. Comr. Irsang and Budi Wibowo; and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Hasto Kristiyanto as witnesses to the South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday to incriminate the KPK, but none claimed to have knowledge on the decision-making process the KPK leaders followed in naming Budi a suspect.

KPK lawyer Chatarina M. Girsang said instead of proving the KPK'€™s move to name Budi a suspect was based on KPK chairman Abraham Samad'€™s alleged grudge against Budi, the witnesses had tried to bring '€œother unrelated issues'€ to the fore to corner the KPK.

'€œThis is irrelevant,'€ Chatarina said in her protest to judge Sarpin Rizaldi, in response to Hendy'€™s testimony that during his time as a KPK investigator, in two cases KPK leaders had declared people suspects without collecting two strong pieces of evidence.

The KPK claimed Hendy was an illegitimate witness in the hearing, as he left the KPK in 2012, three years before it launched an investigation into Budi.

Chatarina said Hendy'€™s testimony may have been aimed at smearing the KPK in an effort to lead the public into thinking that all cases handled by the KPK were marred with irregularities.

Budi'€™s lawyer Magdir Ismail said Hendy had once gone against KPK leaders who had urged him to declare a number of individuals suspects without collecting the required evidence.

'€œThe witness was involved in this tension with KPK leaders. Based on that, we think an injustice has taken place [at the KPK],'€ Magdir said, implying his client may have fallen foul of a similar process involving the KPK'€™s leaders.

Judge Sarpin later agreed with the KPK'€™s lawyers and ordered the court to focus on proving alleged irregularities surrounding the KPK'€™s move against Budi.

In stark contrast to Hendy, witness Irsang, who served as a KPK investigator between 2005 and 2009, said KPK leaders never interfered with the work of investigators in investigations of possible suspects in graft cases.

'€œDuring my four years at the KPK, there was never any such interventions. If you asked if the KPK leaders ever asked us to expedite investigations, yes, they did. There were a number of cases [like that], but if you asked whether the KPK leaders intervened based on their personal interests, the answer would be never,'€ Irsan said in response to Magdir'€™s questions.

Meanwhile, Hasto testified that Abraham had offered to help PDI-P members implicated in graft cases to receive more lenient sentences in return for the party considering him as the running mate of then presidential candidate and current President Jokowi prior to July 9, 2014, presidential election.

Hasto said Abraham was angry upon learning the party had selected Vice President Jusuf Kalla as Jokowi'€™s running mate, after receiving a recommendation from Budi.

Hasto said the KPK'€™s decision to name Budi a suspect was driven by Abraham'€™s personal vendetta against the three-star general.

Hasto added that Abraham had helped PDI-P politician Emir Moeis secure a more lenient sentence in a bribery case last year, a move Hasto claimed was a '€œdown-payment'€ to inform the party of the seriousness of Abraham'€™s intention to become Jokowi'€™s running mate.

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