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Senior minister defends police action in KPK case

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno dismissed on Tuesday speculation that deputy National Police chief Comr

Ina Parlina and Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Makassar
Wed, May 6, 2015

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oordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno dismissed on Tuesday speculation that deputy National Police chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan was behind the recent arrest of Corruption Eradication Commission'€™s (KPK) top investigator Novel Baswedan.

The speculation was fueled by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s specific order on Friday that Budi not take any controversial actions in the case.

Novel'€™s arrest took place soon after Budi, once a candidate for the National Police chief, was sworn in as Badrodin'€™s deputy. Budi had previously been named a bribery suspect by the KPK.

'€œNo, it does not work that way. If something happens internally within the force, the deputy police chief looks into the matter and later reports it to the police chief,'€ Tedjo said on Tuesday at the Presidential Office.

Tedjo said that Budi had strict control over internal police matters.

'€œThe deputy police chief has the task of managing the police'€™s internal affairs, while the police chief oversees the police'€™s external relations,'€ he said.

Novel was arrested last Friday as a suspect in an assault, which allegedly occurred in 2004 when he was serving as chief of detectives in Bengkulu.

Soon after his arrest, Novel was detained briefly but was later released on Saturday after the National Police and the KPK struck a deal.

Novel filed a pretrial petition challenging the police actions at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday, arguing that irregularities occurred when police investigators arrested him.

Following the arrest, Jokowi was quick to issue a statement from his hometown of Surakarta ordering the National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti not to detain Novel because it would erode trust between the police, the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) and the KPK in their fight against corruption.

Jokowi added the legal process must be fair and transparent.

The police ignored Jokowi'€™s call by transporting Novel to Bengkulu in order to conduct a crime scene reconstruction later on Friday.

Tedjo, who is also the head of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), which is tasked with monitoring the police, declined to comment on whether or not National Police detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, whose division is handling Novel'€™s case, should be disciplined for his disobedience of Jokowi'€™s instruction.

'€œWell, he has gone along with what Jokowi ordered; by not detaining [Novel],'€ Tedjo said, adding that Kompolnas would leave such evaluations to the police.

'€œWhat is important is that the legal process continues but without sparking controversy,'€ Tedjo said.

Meanwhile in South Sulawesi, the local prosecutor'€™s office is currently looking into the case dossier of suspended KPK chief Abraham Samad after the South Sulawesi Police submitted the document on Monday.

Abraham was named a suspect in a document forgery case on Feb. 17 for allegedly helping a resident of Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Feriyani Lim, obtain a fake ID card and family card to apply for a passport at the Makassar Immigration Office.

Prosecutors had also received the dossier on Feriyani from the National Police'€™s detective unit, said Muhammad Yusuf, an official at the general crimes unit of the South Sulawesi Prosecutor'€™s Office.

'€œCurrently, the dossiers on Samad and Feriyani, which we received from police investigators yesterday [Monday], are being examined by our team,'€ said Muhammad on Tuesday.

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