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raft suspect and former Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chief Hadi Poernomo has expressed his concern that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) could use a two-week pretrial hearing delay to expedite investigations and send his dossier to the Jakarta Corruption Court to void his pretrial petition.

The South Jakarta District Court on Monday adjourned the pretrial hearing to April 13 after the KPK'€™s legal division team claimed that it needed more time to craft its defense arguments to counter all of Hadi'€™s pretrial accusations, which aimed at securing a court verdict to order the KPK to stop investigating him in a high-profile tax scandal.

Last week, the KPK skipped a pretrial hearing of another graft suspect, Sutan Bhatoegana, forcing the South Jakarta District Court to order a two-week postponement, during which the KPK stepped up investigations and sent the Democratic Party cofounder'€™s dossiers to the Jakarta Corruption Court for trial, a move that automatically voided his pretrial motion.

Article 82 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) stipulates that a pretrial hearing is invalid as soon as a law enforcement institution sends a suspect'€™s dossier to the primary court for indictment.

'€œConsidering what has happened in Sutan'€™s case, then to be honest, we are worried [that we could also face the same situation]. If the KPK does the same to us then it will no longer be considered a law enforcement activity,'€ Hadi'€™s lawyer Magdir Ismail said after Monday'€™s hearing.

Magdir reminded the KPK that the KUHAP required a law enforcement institution to lock up a suspect in the first place before sending his or her dossier to court for trial. He made the statement to emphasize that the KPK could not send the dossier to the court because Hadi has yet to be detained in the case.

The KPK is close to completing Hadi'€™s dossiers after questioning witnesses in the case and had planned to detain the former Finance Ministry'€™s director general of taxation but he refused to attend questioning twice this month.

On March 6, Hadi, who served as BPK chief before his retirement, failed to inform the KPK about his absence at the questioning, while on March 12 he claimed to be receiving treatment at a hospital in Jakarta for a heart problem. In the end, Hadi used the pretrial alibi to prevent the KPK from questioning him in the case to avoid detention.

KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha emphasized that the ongoing investigation at the KPK and the legal process at the South Jakarta District Court were two different activities that should not be mixed up, adding that in practice KPK prosecutors send dossiers to the court because they have crafted their indictment to face the trial and it has nothing to do with racing against time to void a pretrial hearing.

'€œWe don'€™t send dossiers to the court just to void a pretrial hearing. We don'€™t do such things,'€ Priharsa said on Monday.

The KUHAP allows the KPK to bring in Hadi with force should he insist on not attending due to his pretrial hearing, but Priharsa refused to confirm whether the KPK would summons and detain Hadi during the delay period.

Priharsa said that the KPK legal team requested a two-week postponement because on Monday it had to face two other different pretrial hearings for graft suspects '€” namely former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali and former director of state oil and gas operator Pertamina, Suroso Atmo Martoyo '€” while on April 6, it will also have to face three other pretrial hearings.

He further said that the KPK also asked for a one-week delay on Suroso'€™s pretrial hearing to focus on facing Suryadharma'€™s pretrial hearing.