T

he National Police Commission (Kompolnas) has found irregularities behind the controversial police move to prosecute Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Comr. Novel Baswedan.

Among the irregularities were the indication of intervention by the Jakarta Police and the National Police headquarters, Kompolnas commissioner Edi Saputra Hasibuan told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

“Administratively, the involvement of detectives from the Jakarta Police, even the National Police was peculiar. The assaults and shootings allegedly committed by Novel were local matters, which should have been handled by the Bengkulu Police,” he said.

Edi added that the commission failed to “logically accept” the reasoning behind the police’s sudden decision to investigate an eight-year-old case.

Two weeks ago, police officers stormed the KPK headquarters in South Jakarta in an attempt to arrest Novel, who has been accused in the shooting of robbery suspects in 2004. Novel was serving as chief of detectives with Bengkulu Police when the incident occurred.

The police move was allegedly made to weaken the anti-graft body. Novel has been leading the investigation into alleged graft surrounding the procurement of driving simulators by the National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas).

“But we need to dig deeper into our preliminary findings before drawing any conclusions,” Edi said, adding that he could not estimate how long the investigation would last.

The Kompolnas would present its final reports on the case to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
he added.

“We will also give it to the National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo as a recommendation,” Edi said.

The Kompolnas was founded in 2011 as an independent organization to serve as an external police
monitoring body.

Observers, however, have deemed it not powerful enough given its authority of only “making recommendations” to the National Police.

Another independent investigation conducted by rights activists, led by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), has come up with similar conclusion albeit in its preliminary stages.

Kontras’ Haris Azhar, the leader of the investigation team, said that Novel could not be held accountable for the alleged assaults and shootings.

Kontras based its conclusion after interviewing witnesses in the case in Bengkulu.

“First, Novel had just served as the chief detective for only four days when the arrests were made,”
he said.

Haris also said that details of the incident were sketchy.

“Novel had just arrived on the scene when he heard the sound of gunfire. It was really dark. Nobody was sure who shot whom,” he added.

One of the six suspects eventually died while the remainder suffered from bullet wounds and assault
injuries.

“The police decided to make up a story as if the suspect had been shot dead.

“The fact was that he suffered from severe injuries to his head because he had fallen on rocky ground after his leg had been shot, following an escape attempt,” Haris said.

As a form of responsibility, as the leader of the detectives, Novel had been brought to disciplinary tribunal, according to Haris. “He was declared guilty and received reprimand,” he said.