T

he National Police'€™s detective division chief, Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, has insisted that the decision not to detain former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner Bambang Widjojanto on Thursday had nothing to do with National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti.

Budi said on Friday that investigators had decided to release Bambang because he had been cooperative during interrogation, and not because Badrodin had ordered them to do so.

'€œOf course [there was no intervention]. The police chief has no business dealing with law enforcement,'€ he told reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

'€œAs the detective division chief, I'€™m the only one who has a say, but of course the investigators make their own decisions based on their judgement.'€

Budi made similar comments in an interview with The Jakarta Post in March, claiming that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo had promised not to interfere with any police investigations.  

Bambang, who is accused of encouraging perjury in his capacity as a lawyer in 2010 in an election dispute in West Kotawaringin, Central Sulawesi, was released on Thursday after a four-hour interrogation.

The release contradicted an earlier statement made by investigators that Bambang would be detained at the police'€™s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters in Depok, West Java, for being uncooperative.

Badrodin has himself confirmed to media that he ordered Budi not to detain Bambang because it was '€œunnecessary'€.

Bambang'€™s arrest was controversial, as it followed shortly after the KPK named Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, then the sole candidate for the top National Police position, a graft suspect.

It is widely known that Budi Waseso, who had just been inaugurated as detective chief at the time, is a close acquaintance of Budi Gunawan, who was inaugurated as deputy police chief on Wednesday.

Budi explained that Bambang'€™s case dossier had been submitted on Thursday evening to the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO).

The three-star general further revealed that the police and the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) were looking into reports of threats made against eight witnesses in Bambang'€™s case.

'€œA team has been sent to Pang-kalan Bun [in Central Kalimantan] to question the witnesses,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, police expert Bambang Widodo Umar told The Jakarta Post on Friday that Badrodin'€™s intervention was necessary damage control.

'€œThe police chief'€™s role is to control law enforcement policies throughout the force. Although the detective division chief and his investigators may decide on certain strategies to handle certain cases, they cannot disobey the police chief'€™s instructions. If they do they should be reprimanded,'€ he said.

National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Hamidah Abdurrachman agreed, saying that the police chief must keep the detective division in line to make sure that there were no '€œunprofessional investigations'€.