Bagir, also a constitutional law professor at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, was summoned to give an expert statement regarding a judicial review petition challenging the revised KPK Law filed by seven different groups.

The former justice was brought by a group of petitioners consisting of former KPK commissioners, namely Agus Rahardjo, Laode Muhammad Syarif and Saut Situmorang.

Bagir testified that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and the House of Representatives had largely ignored mounting opposition to the revision while it was being deliberated.

The revision, which was passed by the legislative body in October last year, triggered massive demonstrations in Jakarta and other regions, with protesters saying the law had taken the independence out of the antigraft body and stripped away most of its power.

“Many voices from the public at large, academics, mass media and experts demanded [the President and the House] to stop deliberating the revision and keep the law as is,” Bagir testified during Wednesday’s hearing. “However, neither the House nor government responded to the public’s opinion.”

Apart from the protests, hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions demanding the House revoke the revision, including a petition started by a Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University lecturer that received around 2,300 signatures from lecturers of 33 universities.

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