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Setya ignores KPK summons, attends House meeting
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Fighting against corruption: Anticorruption activists rally in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) headquarters in Jakarta on Sept. 7. They called on the KPK to immediately detain House of Representatives Speaker and Golkar Party chairman Setya Novanto, who has been named a suspect in the e-ID graft case. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)
H
ouse of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto has again ignored the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) summons for questioning related to its investigation into the e-ID graft case.
The anti-graft body was scheduled to question the Golkar Party politician in the high profile case on Wednesday morning.
Responding to the summons, Setya asked his team of lawyers to send the KPK a seven-page letter, through which he asserted the legal impunity he is subject to as a high-level lawmaker. Setya added he would first wait for the Constitutional Court’s (MK) ruling on a judicial review request he filed against the 2002 KPK Law.
Refusing to attend his summons, Setya instead showed up at the House building in Senayan, Central Jakarta, to attend a plenary meeting and lead a House leadership meeting.
Setya refused to give details when asked about whether he would fulfill the KPK's summons.
“We'll see to it later. I have sent a letter to the commission and I am still waiting for the MK's ruling,” Setya told journalists after the plenary meeting.
Setya has maintained that the KPK must obtain approval from the President to be able to question him, as stipulated in a 2014 MK verdict regarding the Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law. However, most constitutional law experts said another article in the MD3 Law, that was not changed by the court, mentioned that such impunity was not applicable for extraordinary crimes, including corruption.
Setya and his team of lawyers then filed a judicial review to the MK to challenge Article 46 (1) and 2 of the 2002 KPK Law.
The article stipulates that once a person is named a graft suspect by the KPK, special procedures on suspect investigation stipulated in other laws are no longer valid.
“We have challenged the article so that there will be no misinterpretation,” Setya said.
KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said the court process would neither halt nor hamper the ongoing investigation into Setya's alleged involvement in the e-ID case. “We'll keep going,” he said. (ebf)
