Suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad, in his testimony at the pretrial hearing of KPK investigator Novel Baswedan on Thursday, claimed that the National Police had orchestrated the prosecution of Novel in a bid to exact vengeance for the latter'€™s role in investigations into a number of police generals.

The police had in fact closed Novel'€™s case in 2012, Abraham said, but reopened it following the KPK-police standoff in March this year.

Abraham, who, along with another commissioner, Bambang Widjojanto, was also named a suspect by the police in seemingly overblown cases, revealed that during a previous standoff with the police in 2012, he had attended a meeting with then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then National Police chief Gen. (ret) Timur Pradopo, during which Yudhoyono instructed Timur to drop the investigation into Novel to prevent any future conflict.

Yudhoyono made the order after learning that the police had named Novel a suspect in an assault case dating to 2004 following the KPK investigator'€™s bold move to lead a graft investigation into former National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas) chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo.

'€œThe meeting was facilitated by the State Secretary and lasted from morning to afternoon. The president asserted that it was the KPK that should handle the probe into Djoko and also ordered the police to drop Novel'€™s case. The president considered that the timing of the investigation into Novel was not appropriate. Timur at that time submitted to the order,'€ Abraham told the court.

The case against Novel was dropped soon before Timur was replaced by Gen. Sutarman, who served as the National Police chief from October 2013 to January 2015.

Abraham added that Novel, who was seconded from the police, was one of 26 police investigators who resigned from the National Police in order to apply for a permanent position as a KPK investigator during the tenure of Sutarman.

Before approving Novel'€™s application, Abraham said, he checked Novel'€™s legal status with Sutarman to ensure that the criminal case had been settled.

'€œPak Sutarman said that the decision made about Novel during the tenure of Timur was an institutional decision and not an individual one, which meant that Novel was cleared. That is why we welcomed him as a permanent KPK member,'€ Abraham said.

Another standoff between the KPK and the police transpired earlier this year after the KPK launched a bribery investigation into Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, a move which subsequently cost Abraham and Bambang their jobs, at least provisionally. The National Police escalated their attack by arresting Novel at his home in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, at midnight on May 1, in connection with the decade-old case, which occurred while he was Bengkulu Police detective chief, claiming that the 2012 case was pending.

Novel filed a pretrial petition at the South Jakarta District Court after he found that his arrest had been marred with irregularities and that there were a number of inconsistencies committed by the police in their investigation into his case.

Meanwhile, the National Police'€™s team of lawyers attending Thursday'€™s hearing dismissed Abraham'€™s claim that the police had dropped the 2012 investigation into Novel.

One of the lawyers, Joel Banner Toendan, said that the National Police, under the tenure of Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, had the legal right to resume the investigation into Novel because neither Timur nor Sutarman had issued an official letter, known as an SP3, to halt the case into Novel.

'€œIs there an SP3 letter on Novel'€™s case?,'€ Joel asked Abraham, who replied that he seen no such letter.

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