T

he National Police will question prominent lawyer Otto Cornelis Kaligis soon in response to a police report he filed against investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) who moved to arrest him for graft.

National Police detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso said on Friday that investigators had decided to proceed with the case.

'€œWe have decided to investigate the case filed by Kaligis. We have already sent an official request to the KPK to question Kaligis as a victim [in the case] at the KPK detention center,'€ he told reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Kaligis filed a report against KPK investigators after he was named and detained as a suspect in a bribery case involving three judges in Medan, North Sumatra.

The well-connected lawyer accused the KPK of abusing its power and kidnapping him during the arrest on July 14. The arrest of Kaligis occurred just days after KPK investigators apprehended the three judges '€” Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN Medan) head Tripeni Irianto Putra, Amir Fauzi and Dermawan Ginting '€” during a sting operation on July 9 in Medan for allegedly accepting US$20,000 in bribes from Kaligis'€™ aide, Yagari '€œGerry'€ Bhastara Guntur, who has also been named and detained as a suspect.

Kaligis'€™ legal team have argued that KPK investigators have violated legal procedures during the arrest as the latter did not produce an arrest warrant or identification at the time.

Budi maintained that the investigation into Kaligis'€™ case was not retaliation against the KPK.

'€œWe can'€™t say yet that [the KPK] is guilty of kidnapping [Kaligis] even though that was one of the initial allegations. Now we are in the process of collecting evidence and questioning [Kaligis] is one of our priorities,'€ he said.

Budi previously said that Kaligis'€™ legal team had handed over several pieces of evidence, including audio recordings and witness testimonies.

KPK commissioner Johan Budi said on Friday that he had not received official information from the police regarding their probe into Kaligis.

'€œWe have not received a letter from them yet, Maybe the letter is still stuck in the bureaucracy,'€ he said.

Johan said that the police'€™s move was unprecedented.

'€œ[Such a request] has never been made before so we will have to discuss the request from the detective division chief,'€ he said.

Johan reiterated that the KPK had not violated any legal procedures during Kaligis'€™ arrest at the Borobudur hotel in Central Jakarta.

Apart from filing a police report, Kaligis has also filed a pretrial petition challenging his arrest at the South Jakarta District Court. The first hearing was set to commence on Monday but was postponed to Aug. 18 after the KPK'€™s lawyers failed to show up.

The postponement, however, could cause a problem as Kaligis'€™ legal team claimed on Friday that his graft trial would kick off on Aug. 20 at the Jakarta Corruption Court.

According to Article 82 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), a pretrial motion would be dropped once hearings for a criminal case start.

One of Kaligis'€™ lawyers, Johnson Panjaitan, confirmed that his client would attend the first hearing next Thursday.

'€œWe appreciate the KPK'€™s hard and fast work. Pak OC [Kaligis] has asked us [the legal team] to prepare the best we can for the case and Pak OC confirmed that he would make it to court,'€ he said.

Johnson, however, hoped that the judges at the court would postpone the first hearing because Kaligis'€™ health was deteriorating and he was in need of medical attention.

Since his arrest, Kaligis has refused questioning as a suspect and has repeatedly asked for the case to go to court as soon as possible so that he could prove his innocence.