N

ational Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian’s proposal to set up a joint investigation team with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) into the acid attack on KPK lead investigator Novel Baswedan has been met with opposition.

KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah on Tuesday said the antigraft body was unauthorized to investigate the attack, which fell under the police’s remit as a general crime. According to the 2002 KPK Law, the commission is only authorized to conduct investigations and prosecutions in corruption cases.

“The case lies fully within the police’s jurisdiction,” Febri said, adding that the KPK would continue to coordinate with the police.

Activists have cried foul over the police’s sluggish investigation into the attack, which occurred almost four months ago and has left Novel almost blind in his left eye.

Over the past several days, Novel made headlines after he broke silence and talked to the media, during which he said he had received information that the attack had a strong political dimension and that police personnel may have in fact been involved.

Novel, himself a former police detective, said there had been irregularities in the police investigation.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo responded to the controversy by summoning Tito to the State Palace on Monday.

After the meeting, Tito said a joint team with the KPK would be able to address many of the questions about the credibility of the police’s investigation.

Tito, however, rejected a proposal to set up an independent fact-finding team that activists have proposed as a solution to providing a credible investigation into the attack.

In the past, a similar fact-finding team was established by then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to help the investigation into the murder of human rights champion Munir Said Thalib in 2004.

Febri said the KPK appreciated the President’s move to summon Tito. “We hope it can accelerate the investigation until the assailants are apprehended,” he said.

Separately, however, KPK deputy chairman Laode Muhammad Syarif said the anti-graft body had not received recent updates on the investigation from the Jakarta Police.

Last week, then Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. M. Iriawan was replaced by Insp. Gen. Idham Aziz, who formerly served as Tito’s subordinate at the police’s counterterrorist squad Detachment 88.

Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, the chairman of Muhammadiyah’s youth wing, said he had met with Novel in Singapore on Tuesday where the latter questioned Tito’s rejection of an independent fact-finding team.

“Novel believes the case will remain unsolved without an independent and credible fact-finding team. He alleged that the police’s proposal to team up with the KPK was merely Tito’s effort to make the force look serious [in handling the case],” Dahnil said in a statement.

Novel also said he welcomed Jokowi’s move to summon Tito, while adding that he was worried that the police chief had been given false information by his subordinates.

Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Yati Andriyani echoed Novel’s statement.

“The KPK’s [proposed] involvement in the investigation should not simply be intended as a justification for the police to reject an independent team, which I think is required to resolve this special case,” Yati said.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Febri Hendri urged Jokowi to endorse the establishment of an independent fact-finding team.

“President Jokowi has to get further involved by initiating an independent fact-finding team if he doesn’t want his administration to leave behind a bad record in law enforcement,” he said. (kuk/yon)