T

he National Police have warned they will bring suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto in for questioning by force after he failed to respond to a second summons by the police on Friday.

On the same day, the police also brought another criminal charge against Abraham Samad, the anti-graft body'€™s suspended chairman. He had previously been charged with document forgery.

'€œIf the suspect does not answer his summons then an order will be issued to bring him in. This means that we will have to bring him in wherever we see him,'€ acting National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti said on Friday.

According to the Criminal Code (KUHAP), investigators have the right to bring in a suspect by force for questioning if the he twice ignores a police summons.

Bambang, who is accused of perjury, was due to be questioned as a suspect for a third time on Tuesday. Instead, he arrived with a team of lawyers to deliver a letter of objection to the deputy police chief and the National Police'€™s economic and special crimes director Brig. Gen. Kamil Razak, before leaving the police headquarters within the hour.

The letter outlined Bambang'€™s objections to fresh charges made against him in the summons letter. He also demanded the police hand over a copy of the updated case dossier to him so he could better prepare himself for questioning.

He was then scheduled for questioning on Friday. One of Bambang'€™s lawyers, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, said he had not attended questioning because he had not yet received a copy of the dossier.

'€œBut we have sent a letter to the police'€™s detective division to reschedule the questioning. This does not count as an unauthorized absence,'€ she said.

Badrodin still insisted that the two missed summonses were unauthorized as the investigators had not received a letter of absence from Bambang'€™s lawyer before the day of questioning.

The acting National Police chief also confirmed that fellow suspended KPK commissioner Abraham Samad had been named a suspect last week for alleged abuse of power, in addition to the charges of falsifying documents in another case handled by the South and West Sulawesi Police.

Abraham was accused of meeting with several Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politicians, including secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto, to talk about the possibility of him being chosen as Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s vice-presidential candidate in last year'€™s presidential election. Abraham allegedly told Hasto that he had greased the wheels of justice for a number of PDI-P members convicted of graft, resulting in more lenient sentences.

'€œWe are prioritizing the [document forgery] case at the South and West Sulawesi Police. However, it is possible that the cases will continue to be investigated simultaneously,'€ Badrodin said.

KPK acting chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki acknowledged that he had instructed Novel Baswedan, an investigator who has been named a suspect in an assault case from 11 years ago, to skip police questioning on Thursday.

The police reopened an investigation into the former police officer regarding his alleged involvement in a fatal assault on a suspected thief.

'€œNovel Baswedan is my subordinate at the KPK. I have the obligation to protect him,'€ said the retired police general and the first chairman of the KPK.