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View all search resultsNew police team takes over investigation of Novel's attack, has three months to solve the case
The team has three months to solve the 2-year-old case, as per President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's orders.
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Targeted: Senior Corruption Eradication Commission investigator Novel Baswedan talks to journalists in Singapore, where he received medical treatment for an acid attack in 2017. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
N
ational Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian has signed an assignment order for members of the police’s technical team tasked with investigating the acid on against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) top investigator Novel Baswedan.
The team, comprising nearly 90 personnel and led by Insp. Gen. Idham Azis, head of the police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), will immediately start its investigation, said National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo.
“The assignment order will be distributed to the members of the technical team on Wednesday and they will start working [on Thursday],” Dedi said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.
The attack against the KPK investigator occurred on April 11, 2017, when two unidentified men threw acid at Novel’s face as he was walking home after performing a morning prayer at a nearby mosque in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.
Novel’s left eye was severely injured as result of the attack, which has been left unsolved for more than two years as a string of investigations — both by the police as well as a fact-finding team formed by Tito — was unable to identify the perpetrators.
Dedi said members of the team would first analyze the crime scene and thoroughly assess the interview of around 70 witnesses previously conducted by the Jakarta Police.
The witnesses will be grouped in accordance with the information they had revealed to obtain more leads in the case, he said.
The team will also analyze CCTV footage of the crime scene and study the previously published sketches of the alleged attackers in cooperation with the Home Ministry’s Population and Civil Registry (Dukcapil).
“According to the order, the team will work for six months,” Dedi said. “However, as the President gave us a [deadline] of three months, the team members will work as hard as they can.”
The establishment of the police’s technical team came after a recommendation from a fact-finding team that recently announced its final report after a six-month investigation that did not reveal any new leads or possible suspects.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has ordered the police’s technical team to work faster, giving a deadline of three months for it to solve the case. (dpk/afr)
