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Police chief denies force wiretapped SBY
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Security readiness -- National Police chief Gen.Tito Karnavian (second right) and Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Asman Abnur (right) receive a mascot of the Smile Police Application from Central Java Police chief Insp.Gen. Condro Kirono (second from left) during its launch in Semarang on Jan. 4.
(Antara/R.Rekotomo)
N
ational Police chief Gen.Tito Karnavian said his institution had never wiretapped former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's phone conversations, asserting he was ready to give explanation on the matter.
He was speaking to respond to the phone-tapping allegation raised by Yudhoyono, following the eighth session of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama's blasphemy trial by the North Jakarta District Court on Jan. 31.
“The National Police have never conducted a wiretapping against Pak SBY [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono],” said Tito after the launch of the Smile Police Application at the Central Java Police headquarters in Semarang on Saturday.
Tito said he was ready to attend a meeting on the matter that would be held by the House of Representatives’ Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, human rights and security, should he be invited.
In the trial, one of Ahok's defense lawyers, Humphrey Djemat, claimed Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Ma’ruf Amin, who testified as a witness, received a phone call from Yudhoyono on Oct. 6.
It was a day before a meeting between executives of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Jakarta gubernatorial candidate pair Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono and Sylviana Murni took place at the NU headquarters on Jl. Kramat Raya, Central Jakarta. Ma’ruf was present at the meeting.
In the session, Humphrey frequently asked Ma'ruf whether he had been “demanded by Yudhoyono" to "issue an edict" in response to Ahok's speech during a working visit to Thousand Islands regency on Sept. 27. The lawyer also asked the MUI chairman whether Yudhoyono had asked NU to “accept Agus and Sylviana at its headquarters".
Maruf denied all of the accusations during the hearing. (ebf)
