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wo antigraft activist from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) have defied a police summons as part of a defamation probe into them.

Senior legal expert from Bandung'€™s Padjajaran University, Romli Atmasasmita filed a report against ICW activists Emerson Yuntho and Adnan Topan Husodo in May last year, accusing them of making defamatory media statements.

Romli also filed a similar report against former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) advisor Said Zainal Abidin.

Legal counsel for the two activists, Legal Aid Institute (LBH) for the Press lawyer Asep Komarudin, said that his clients could not be questioned until police investigators had a written statement from Romli approving the continuation of the investigation, as stipulated in a 2012 memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the National Police and Press Council.

'€œThere'€™s this recommendation issued by the Press Council that the police need to fulfil. [My clients] are willing to face questioning as long as point 5 of the MoU between the Press Council and the police force is fulfilled,'€ Asep said.

Emerson and Adnan were present at the National Police headquarters on Wednesday but they declined to be questioned by investigators.

'€œThey will be ready to be questioned once [Romli] has sent the written statement,'€ he said, adding that the Press Council had issued their preliminary findings last year and determined that the allegedly incriminating remarks Emerson and Adnan made should be subject to the Press Law.

Last year, media outlets ran numerous stores speculating that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo would nominate Romli and two legal analysts, Margarito Kamis and Chairul Huda, as possible candidates for a team tasked with screening a new batch of KPK commissioners.

Although the President eventually established an all-female team, Romli went on to accuse Emerson, Adnan and Said of making derogatory remarks when asked to comment on possible candidates. He submitted stories published by Kompas, Tempo and The Jakarta Post as evidence to back up his claims.

The National Police have questioned journalists from the three media outlets to seek clarification on whether Emerson, Adnan and Said explicitly mentioned Romli'€™s name in their remarks.

In the stories published in the three aforementioned publications Adnan, Emerson and Said never explicitly mentioned Romli, Margarito or Chairul'€™s names.

Police handling Emerson'€™s and Adnan'€™s case blasted the suspects'€™ intransigence.

Head of subdirectorate III at the police'€™s detective division, Sr. Comr. Umar S. Fana said that the MoU did not apply to Emerson and Adnan, as neither of them worked in the media.

'€œI have already read [the MoU] and its function is to protect those who work in the media, publishers of the news and reporters and it does not include its sources,'€ he said, adding that investigators had yet to name suspects in the case.