After six months of work, a fact-finding team formed by National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian has failed to identify any suspects behind an acid attack against top Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan.

Instead, it may have muddied the waters further, speculating that the attack on Novel might be linked to six high-profile cases involving the investigator, but offering no evidence supporting the links.

The team, formed in January, submitted its final report on Wednesday, and recommended that the police form a new technical team to continue its investigation.

In a press conference at the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) in South Jakarta, former National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) head Nur Kholis, one of the experts on the team, said it had double-checked the alibis of four witnesses who were previously suspected of being involved in the attack, but did not find “sufficient and definitive evidence” of their involvement.

The attack occurred on April 11, 2017, when two unidentified men threw acid at Novel’s face as the investigator was on his way home from morning prayers at a mosque near his house in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

Nur said the team had suspected that three unidentified individuals — one of whom visited Novel’s house on April 5, while two were at the mosque on April 10 — were involved in the attack.

He added it was suspected that the motive behind the attack was retaliation related to high-profile corruption cases that Novel was investigating at the KPK and recommended that the police look into those cases for possible suspects.

He mentioned six cases in particular: the e-ID card case, a case involving former Constitutional Court head Akil Mochtar, a case involving former Supreme Court secretary-general Nurhadi, a case involving former Buol regent Amran Batalipu, the Wisma Atlet case involving former Democratic Party treasurer Nazaruddin, and a case in which Novel allegedly assaulted a robbery suspect when he was serving as the Bengkulu Police’s chief detective.

“It’s not limited to these six cases, but because of time constraints we only looked into these cases,” Nur said.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Muhammad Iqbal defended the apparent lack of progress in the fact-finding team’s investigation, saying that different cases had “different levels of difficulty”.

“This case has a minimal amount of evidence,” he said on Wednesday. “[Solving it] will take time.”

Iqbal said Tito would form the recommended technical team within a week, with the police’s Bareskrim head, Insp. Gen. Idham Azis, leading the group.

As for the established fact-finding team, the National Police chief formed it amid pressure from activists and members of the public who had long criticized the lack of significant progress in the investigation in its first years. Not a single suspect was named by the team despite available CCTV recordings and several eyewitnesses.

The fact-finding team comprised 65 personnel, including 52 police officers, seven experts and six officials from the KPK. The team was given six months to solve the case.

Critics of the team — including Novel himself — previously expressed skepticism over its independence, as it mostly comprised police officers instead of more independent civil society figures.

A group of civil society organizations advocating for Novel — consisting of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) — condemned the team’s findings and called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to form a more independent team himself.

“Novel’s case is still in the dark as long as no suspect is named in the case,” the group said. “The failure of this team is nothing less than the failure of the National Police given that the team reports directly to the National Police chief.”

The group said the team’s findings were contradictory, saying that it sifted through an abundance of evidence but then concluded that there was very little evidence.

Amnesty International Indonesia campaign manager Puri Kencana Putri echoed the group’s sentiments.

“Right now the public is waiting for the political will from the President to resolve Novel’s case,” she said. “The President should not remain silent. The public is waiting for President Jokowi to make a decision to form an independent fact-finding team [that operates] under the President.”

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