TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsInvestigation in safe hands: Taskforce
In an attempt to soothe negative public sentiment for the police, which are at the center of a case brokering scandal allegedly involving former senior department officials, the Judicial Mafia Taskforce has called on the public to trust the police to handle the case
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
I
n an attempt to soothe negative public sentiment for the police, which are at the center of a case brokering scandal allegedly involving former senior department officials, the Judicial Mafia Taskforce has called on the public to trust the police to handle the case.
Taskforce member Mas Achmad Santosa said the police would need more time to question more people in the case brokering allegedly involving Sjahril Djohan, a former expert staff at the National Police and Attorney General’s Office.
“The taskforce believes in the police. We know what has been going on inside. Give [the police] time to work professionally,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Mas Achmad said that with the investigation still ongoing, it would be “premature” to dismiss the police as incapable of conducting a serious investigation into the case.
“It’s too premature to ask why some of those involved have not also been named as suspects. In the near future, as the investigation draws to an end, those involved and their actions will be announced to the public,”
he said.
Despite naming Sjahril a suspect in the case Wednesday, the taskforce has come under fire for not naming other high-ranking figures as suspects, such as former National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. (ret) Makbul Padmanagara.
Makbul and Sjahril were implicated in the case by Former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji during a questioning with the House of Representatives’ law commission last week.
Critics have also accused the police of trying to strike back against Susno, an accusation echoed by one of Susno’s lawyers, Henry Yosodiningrat.
“It is too obvious — the police have tried their best to corner my client,” he told the Post, citing that the National Police’s internal affairs unit had prevented Susno from flying to Singapore for a medical check-up.
Henry said the police should have instead thanked Susno for providing the names.
“What we have seen here is Susno becoming an enemy of his colleagues at the National Police, rather than receiving appreciation for what he has done,” he said.
“We can only depend on the public to help us here,” Henry added.
National Police deputy spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis denied the allegation, adding that the police had merely been following up evidence found during the investigation.
“We are not conducting our case based on sentiments. We’ve formed an independent team to work on the case,” he said, adding that the police would welcome any third party to monitor the ongoing investigation.
He said the police had organized a meeting between Sjahril and another suspect in the case, Haposan Hutagalung, on Thursday.
Haposan is the former lawyer of Gayus Tambunan, a low-ranked tax officer charged with bribery and money laundering who was later acquitted earlier this year.
