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KPK shows Novel the door after tumultuous stint
Novel Baswedan - JP/Wendra AjistyatamaThe Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has pushed its top investigator Novel Baswedan to resign from his position following the antigraft bodyâs move to strike a deal with the Attorney Generalâs Office (AGO) to nullify Novelâs assault case trial at the Bengkulu State Court
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Novel Baswedan - JP/Wendra Ajistyatama
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has pushed its top investigator Novel Baswedan to resign from his position following the antigraft body's move to strike a deal with the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to nullify Novel's assault case trial at the Bengkulu State Court.
KPK commissioner Saut Situmorang confirmed on Thursday that an offer had been made to Novel to allow him to continue his anticorruption work as an investigator outside of the KPK.
'There are many available options to solve [Novel's assault case] without causing a commotion and we, the five KPK leaders, have our own way of doing it. We want Novel to work in a position where his past will longer haunt him,' Saut said on Thursday.
'We are confident that he can serve well anywhere he will go in the future as long as it is relevant to his professional skills. We are still discussing possibilities on how Novel will serve that greater role,' said Saut.
The KPK commissioner, however, denied that the decision to oust Novel was part of a deal that the KPK had struck with the AGO.
In a show of revenge, the National Police in 2012 opened an assault case, dating back to 2004, against the former police investigator after he led an investigation into then-National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas) chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo in a graft case.
Then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the police drop the investigation into Novel's case to prevent a worsening standoff between the KPK and the police.
However, the Police reopened the case when the two law enforcement agencies engaged in another standoff in January 2015 following the KPK's decision to name National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a bribery suspect.
Despite alleged irregularities in their handling of Novel's case, the National Police completed an investigation late last year into Novel and sent his dossier to the Bengkulu Prosecutor's Office, which is under the supervision of the AGO, which later sent Novel's case to the court for trial.
Contacted separately, KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo declined to give a detailed explanation for Novel's possible departure and said that Novel would be assigned as a member of an anticorruption taskforce that was not a part of the KPK.
'[The taskforce] is a wing of the KPK, [but Novel] does not have to come to the office at the KPK,' Agus said without elaborating any further.
Novel's lawyers said they had yet to receive any official information from the KPK regarding the plan for Novel, but they nonetheless strongly rejected the scheme and asked that the KPK drop it.
'Our stance remains the same, that Novel's case was trumped up in an effort to weaken the KPK and the fight against corruption. As a senior investigator, Novel is a symbol of the anticorruption campaign. Should the symbol be criminalized, it means that [they] criminalize or sell out the fight against corruption,' one of Novel's lawyers Julius Ibrani said.
Separately, former KPK commissioner Bambang Widjojanto, who was also named a perjury suspect by the police in January, blasted the plan and argued that Novel was an asset in the country's fight against corruption.
'To perceive Novel as a liability is an insult to our intelligence,' Bambang said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, through his spokesman Johan Budi, a former KPK commissioner, said he wanted to see the controversial cases against Novel and those of former KPK leaders, Bambang and Abraham Samad, settled immediately and he would allow the AGO to find a mechanism to settle them.
The call was made when Jokowi held a meeting with Attorney General M. Prasetyo and National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti on Thursday, during which Prasetyo and Badrodin briefed the President on the latest developments in the cases.
