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closed-door meeting between the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO), the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Monday agreed that the police would stop all probes into the KPK investigators that were looking into a bribery case alleging the involvement of deputy National Police chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan.

The agreement was made after tensions between the two institutions further escalated following the arrest of KPK investigator Novel Baswedan by the police on Friday.

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said that he had ordered his subordinates to obtain his permission to probe the antigraft body'€™s officials.

But he said that the cases involving Novel and suspended KPK leaders Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, had been pursued by the force prior to issuing his order.

'€œAccording to the agreement between the KPK, police and AGO, the cases [those of Novel, Abraham and Bambang] would continue but I have already issued an order to stop investigating [KPK investigators working on Budi'€™s case],'€ Badrodin said after the closed-door meeting at the AGO office in Jakarta.

Badrodin said the other cases involving KPK officials were not part of the deal since such a move would obstruct justice.

'€œThe courts will later determine whether [Novel, Abraham and, Bambang] are guilty or not based on evidence presented during future trials,'€ Badrodin added.

Abraham and Bambang were named suspects by the police after the KPK declared Budi a graft suspect in January at the 11th hour of his expected inauguration as National Police chief, which was consequently voided.

Many believe that the installment of retired police general Taufiequrachman Ruki, who later transferred Budi'€™s case to the AGO, was part of a plan to undermine the KPK'€™s maneuvers to proceed with cases involving high-ranking police officers.

The police recently reopened Novel'€™s assault case, which had been closed under the tenure of police chief Gen. (ret) Timur Pradopo in 2012.

Monday'€™s talk also agreed to form a joint anticorruption task force involving the AGO, police and the KPK, according Ruki, who represented the KPK at the meeting.

'€œThe joint task force aims to build better synergy among the three institutions. It will be established soon,'€ Attorney General M. Prasetyo said after the meeting.

Despite Badrodin'€™s order, National Police detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso said that police investigators would continue investigating KPK investigators handling Budi'€™s case, but emphasized that the police would not make doing so a priority.

'€œOur priority is investigating corruption cases,'€ Budi said.

Separately, Novel'€™s lawyer, Asfinawati, said on Monday that she had filed a pretrial motion with the South Jakarta District Court to challenge her client'€™s arrest, which she said was marred by irregularities.

Novel was arrested at his house in East Jakarta at midnight on Friday. After the arrest, the police said that Novel owned four houses that had not been declared in the wealth report he submitted to the KPK. Novel insisted that he only owned one house in Jakarta.

'€œThe arrest warrant says that Novel has been charged under Article 51, paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Criminal Code [KUHP] on assault, while the investigation order says Article 351 paragraphs 1 as well as Article 442 of the KUHP on misconduct in conjunction with Article 52 of the KUHP on additional sentences for a law enforcer committing crimes,'€ Asfinawati said.

Asfinawati said that Budi had intentionally intervened on Novel'€™s case by issuing the arrest warrant because it was the authority of investigators to decide whether to arrest a suspect, adding the arrest warrant had expired by the time of the arrest.

'€œWe have collected strong evidence to back our pretrial motion. We will also present expert witnesses to support our arguments in the upcoming pretrial hearing,'€ Asfinawati said. (alm)