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fter more than a month of internal investigation, the National Police have finally named a senior investigator a suspect for allegedly attempting to extort Rp 5 billion (US$375,376) from a drug dealer.

The head of the National Police'€™s anti-corruption directorate of the detective division, Sr. Comr. Ahmad Wiyagus, confirmed on Thursday that the investigator, identified as Adj. Sr. Comr. Pentus Napitu, had been detained after undergoing interrogation at the National Police'€™s headquarters in South Jakarta.

'€œWe immediately detained him as the investigators were worried that he would try to flee or destroy evidence,'€ he told reporters, adding that Pentus would be detained at the police headquarters.

Last month, Pentus, an investigator with the National Police'€™s narcotics directorate, was reported to have demanded Rp 5 billion from a drug trafficker he was investigating.

The unnamed drug trafficker claimed that he had already paid Pentus Rp 3 billion to stop the case, but was forced to report Pentus to the police after the latter asked him for another Rp 2 billion.

If Pentus is found guilty of receiving bribes, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years or a fine of Rp 1 billion under Law No. 20/2002 on Corruption Eradication.

When inaugurated as the new National Police chief a few months ago, Gen. Badrodin Haiti vowed to implement internal reforms in the institution to improve the quality of its officers.

The police have also conducted a major rotation among the force'€™s middle- and high-ranking officers in a bid to improve the service to the public. Among the officers who have been promoted is the former chief of the counterterrorism squad Densus 88, Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian, who is now the Jakarta Police chief.

National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Hamidah Abdurrahman applauded the police force'€™s move to press charges against Pentus as the commission had long believed that the National Police lacked tight supervision over their personnel.

However, she said that investigators responsible for the case must keep the case open to the public so that there would be no doubts over the legal process.

'€œThis is definitely a positive step but we all have to make sure that the investigation is not conducted halfheartedly,'€ she told The Jakarta Post.

'€œThe legal process must remain open [to the public] to ensure that there is no intervention that will diminish the weight of [Pentus'€™ alleged] crimes.'€

Hamidah added that Kompolnas would also follow the case closely to make sure that the investigation went smoothly.

National Police detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso said that although Pentus had been suspended, he would not be discharged from the police force until he attended an internal ethics trial, which would be held by the police force'€™s internal affairs division (Propam).

'€œHe will still face internal sanctions, which will have to wait for the ethics trial. However, the criminal case investigation will definitely continue with no interruption,'€ he said.

Budi explained that the evidence, consisting mostly of cash, gold and jewelry, was consistent with the accusations made by the unnamed drug trafficker.

However, so far investigators think that Pentus worked alone.

When asked whether the director of the narcotics unit, Brig. Gen. Anjan Pramuka Putra, was involved, Budi said that '€œPak Anjan merely signed the order to investigate [the drug dealer] but [Pentus] abused this order and so he is the only one in the wrong.'€