Former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad has maintained his innocence after the National Police accused him of abusing his power as leader of the antigraft body in a bid to become a vice presidential candidate last year.

Abraham, who underwent five hours of police questioning as a suspect on Wednesday, said investigators questioned him about a meeting he had with then-presidential candidate Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo in Yogyakarta last year.

'€œIt finally became clear that they wanted to clarify whether or not I really met with Pak Jokowi in Yogyakarta. However, it is still unclear why I have been named a suspect because there really is no problem,'€ he told reporters at the National Police headquarters.

Abraham said his meeting with Jokowi was open to the public. '€œThere was no political agenda behind it,'€ he said.

Police investigators also questioned Abraham about several meetings he had with Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto at the Capital Residence apartments in the Sudirman Central Business District in March and April last year.

Abraham said he had agreed to meet with Hasto because the PDI-P politician proposed a discussion on irregularities that took place in the regional election in Bali.

One of Abraham'€™s lawyers, Saor Siagian, said that by meeting a presidential candidate, Abraham could only be accused of an ethics violation, not a criminal one.

Saor also said the police should also drop their prosecution of Abraham as KPK commissioners, most notably interim chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki, had written to National Police Gen. Badrodin Haiti requesting that the police halt their probe.

'€œThe letter from the KPK leaders said that Abraham clearly violated an ethics code [not a criminal one] but the police continued to summon him,'€ he said.

Saor said that Abraham'€™s legal team had shown the letter to the investigators, who claimed that they were in the dark over the letter.

The police moved against Abraham following a claim made by Hasto earlier this year that Abraham had met with officials from the PDI-P on a number of occasions to lobby for the position of Jokowi'€™s running mate in the 2014 presidential election.

Hasto'€™s announcement followed the KPK'€™s decision to name then police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a graft suspect.

Although Abraham has vehemently denied the accusation, NGO KPK Watch filed a police report against Abraham to back up Hasto'€™s claims that he had helped PDI-P politician Emir Moeis, who had been implicated in a graft case in connection with a geothermal power development case in Lampung in 2004, to get a lenient sentence in a bribery case last year.

Hasto claimed that Abraham extended the favor as a bargaining chip.

The police have named Abraham a suspect for allegedly meeting with a graft suspect or someone connected to the graft suspect, which violated Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK.

The South and West Sulawesi police have also named Abraham a suspect for allegedly forging documents four years prior to assuming the top job at the KPK.

Fellow former commissioner Bambang Widjojanto was also named a perjury suspect in a 2010 case following the KPK and National Police standoff.

The National Police'€™s detective division'€™s director of general crimes, Brig. Gen. Carlo Tewu, could not be reached for comment.

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