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Analysis: Hunter becomes hunted in Indonesia’s antigraft campaign
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Investigators show evidence of alleged bribery and suspects at a press conference to determine the suspect in a suspected corruption case, the construction of the Cimahi Kasih Bunda Hospital building, at the KPK Building, Jakarta, Saturday (28/11/2020). The KPK officially named and detained two suspects in the case, namely Cimahi Mayor Ajay Muhammad Priatna and Commissioner of the Kasih Bunda Hospital, Hutama Yonathan.
T
he police are investigating Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) head Firli Bahuri over allegations of extorting Rp 1 billion (US$65,000) from Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo to halt a corruption probe into the cabinet minister.
Syahrul visited the Jakarta Police headquarters last Thursday to file a complaint against the KPK chief and submit evidence to support his extortion claim. A few days afterward, the police announced that their preliminary investigation had yielded enough evidence against Firli to launch a criminal investigation.
One piece of evidence that was leaked and went immediately viral on social media was a photograph of the two men seated at a badminton court in West Jakarta, allegedly taken in December 2022. This could prove that Firli had violated the KPK code of ethics, which bans its personnel from meeting individual subjects of a corruption investigation.
Firli has denied the extortion claim while debunking the alleged ethics breach, saying the meeting at the badminton court took place in March 2022 before Syahrul had been named as a corruption suspect. He said the KPK had opened its investigation into the minister in January 2023. While he did not reveal what was discussed at their meeting, he stressed that it was arranged on Syahrul’s initiative.
Aside from claiming that the viral photo was misdated, Firli said that many details of the alleged extortion on social media were pure fabrication, including when the money had changed hands between the two officials’ aides.
Firli has so far kept his job as the KPK chief, but he might have to step down if the police change his status to a suspect of a criminal investigation. This is a very likely possibility, as the quickness at which the police were able to launch a full investigation following the initial complaint suggests they have a strong case against one of their own: Firli, 59, retired from the National Police in December 2021 with the rank of commissioner general.
Firli has faced many allegations of breaching KPK ethics in the past and got got off lightly on two proven occasions of an ethics breach, but has never faced a criminal charge. In 2018, when he was KPK deputy head, he was found to have violated the antigraft body’s ethics code by meeting with then-West Nusa Tenggara governor Muhammad Zainul Majdi, who was a witness in a corruption case at the time. Firli was then recalled to the police force and despite his record, he was reappointed to the KPK in 2021, this time as its chief.
