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Civil society groups renew call for independent probe into acid attack on Novel
Civil society groups are calling on the President to use the beginning of his second term to take a more progressive and assertive approach to solving the case of the acid attack against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) senior investigator Novel Baswedan.
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Targeted: Corruption Eradication Commission senior investigator Novel Baswedan talks to journalists in Singapore. Novel underwent treatment in Singapore on his left eye, which was injured in an acid attack in 2017. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he three-month deadline extension President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo granted the National Police to solve the case of the acid attack against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) senior investigator Novel Baswedan is approaching its end, prompting calls for the formation of an independent team free from police involvement amid a lack of reported progress.
Jokowi said on July 19 that he had given a police technical team three months to solve the case after an earlier fact-finding team set up by National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian in January failed to identify any suspects behind the attack within the given six months.
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.
The fact-finding team's final report, submitted on July 17, did not reveal any new leads or possible suspects, but instead recommended that the police form a "technical" team to continue investigating for another six months. Jokowi, however, demanded faster progress and granted only three months.
The technical team comprises nearly 90 personnel led by Insp. Gen. Idham Azis, head of the police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo stated in late July. However, no progress has been reported since the formation of the team.
On the sidelines of his Cabinet farewell at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Friday, two days before his inauguration for his second term, Jokowi appeared to deflect questions about the case and the formation of his new Cabinet, saying, "Later, I've said earlier, be patient."
Also on Friday, a group of civil society organizations advocating for justice 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) – submitted a letter to the President through the State Secretariat office in Jakarta, urging the President to form an independent fact-finding team in light of the police's failure to make significant progress in the investigation since Jokowi's July 19 statement.
