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Watchdogs urge firm action against Firli for skipping interrogations
KPK chairman Firli Bahuri has repeatedly failed to answer the summons for questioning with the Jakarta Police investigators into alleged extortion implicating former minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo.
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Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leadership candidate Insp. Gen. Firli Bahuri of the National Police salutes House of Representatives members at the House complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Sept. 19, 2019. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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ntigraft activists have called on the police to take firm action against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Firli Bahuri after his repeated obstructionism in regard to his interrogation in an alleged extortion case implicating former agriculture minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo.
After failing to answer repeated summonses for questioning, Firli finally arrived on Thursday for a second round of interrogation with the Jakarta Police investigators in the case.
As with the first round of questioning, he made a request to undergo the questioning at the headquarters of the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) rather than at the Jakarta Police headquarters. Investigators granted the request.
Following the questioning, Firli tried to evade reporters upon leaving the Bareskrim building. When reporters crowded his car that was trying to leave the police headquarters complex, the retired police general covered his face using a black bag to avoid being photographed by reporters.
Firli’s lawyer Ian Iskandar said his client denied the extortion allegations during the questioning, calling the accusations slander, as reported by tempo.co.
The lawyer also claimed that investigators did not seize any evidence during a series of searches at his houses on Oct. 27. “There was no evidence found that proves the extortion allegation,” Ian said, as quoted by tempo.co.
Ian’s statement, however, was in contrast with Jakarta Police special criminal investigations director Sr. Comr. Ade Safri Simanjuntak, who said that investigators had confiscated several documents and other items during the search and from other witnesses, including other KPK employees.
