Abraham Samad - JP/Ricky Yudhistira

The South Sulawesi Police released former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad on Tuesday evening following a brief detention.

'€œPak Abraham was asked to sign the arrest warrant but we refused to do so. The police decided to release him,'€ Samad'€™s lawyer, Liliana Santosa, said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Samad was detained by the police after being grilled for hours in a forgery case, with KPK leaders immediately petitioning National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti for his release.

KPK deputy commissioner Johan Budi said the commission'€™s leaders had been taken aback to learn that the National Police had detained Abraham, since the latter had cooperated fully with police investigators.

The police named him a suspect for document forgery not long after the KPK named Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a graft suspect following his nomination by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo as a candidate for National Police chief. The South Jakarta District Court annulled the KPK'€™s decision and Budi was subsequently appointed deputy police chief.

Last Thursday, the KPK persuaded the National Police not to detain another former KPK commissioner, Bambang Widjojanto, who, along with Abraham, was pivotal in the decision to name Budi a suspect in a bribery case in January. Acting KPK chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki, a retired police general, personally convinced Badrodin to release Bambang.

Bambang was named a suspect in a perjury case relating to his work as a lawyer representing a party in a regional election at the Constitutional Court in 2010, one year before he was elected KPK commissioner.

Abraham, meanwhile, stands accused of falsifying residential documents in Makassar in 2007, four years before he assumed the KPK chairmanship.

Separately, acting KPK commissioner Indriyanto Seno Adji said that KPK leaders would hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to proceed with Abraham'€™s case. '€œIt will be discussed further tomorrow,'€ Indriyanto said.

The South Sulawesi Police on Tuesday grilled Abraham for a second time, a continuation of a delayed questioning session held on Feb. 24.

'€œAs a good citizen, I must follow all the legal processes,'€ Abraham told reporters in Makassar before entering the police office.

Abraham was accompanied by dozens of lawyers, including Liliana and Johanes Gea, as well as Adnan Buyung Azis and Indra Mantong Batti from the KPK legal bureau.

The questioning began at around 1:30 p.m. local time and lasted until around 8.30 p.m.

According to Adnan, police investigators asked his client a total of 41 questions.

'€œThe arrest warrant came in a package with the detention order. After his questioning, the police arrested him and took him to the detention center,'€ the lawyer explained.

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