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Cop murder prompts cover-up probe
Police detain Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo over ‘serious’ ethics violation allegations
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he investigation into the mysterious death of Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat has taken a new course with the National Police now focusing on the alleged cover-up carried out by dozens of officers initially assigned to resolve the high-profile murder case.
Yosua, widely known as Brigadier J, was killed at the residence of the police’s then-internal affairs chief, Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo, on July 8 in what the police initially claimed was a fatal shootout between Yosua and another police officer identified as Bharada E after an alleged attempt by the former to sexually harass Ferdy’s wife in her bedroom.
In a new twist, the National Police on Thursday charged Bharada E, his full identity revealed as Second Agent (Bharada) Richard Eliezer, with killing Yosua and on Saturday night detained Ferdy over evidence tampering allegations.
“Based on the investigation done by the special inspectorate [team], which included interviews with 10 witnesses and a few of pieces of evidence, [Ferdy] is suspected of committing an [ethics] violation, as he was unprofessional in managing the crime scene,” Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Dedi told reporters on Saturday.
Alleged cover-up
The murder case immediately drew public suspicion soon after the police held a press conference to give their first official account of what happened at Ferdy’s house.
A slew of discrepancies between the account provided by Yosua’s family — who claimed he was tortured before he was killed as shown by the bruises and cuts on his body — and that the police, who initially claimed that not a single CCTV camera was working during the incident, have fuelled allegations of cover-up.
Twenty-five officers, including Ferdy and two other unidentified police generals, are currently being investigated for potential ethics breaches over their processing of the crime scene of Yosua’s murder, said National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo. The officers, he added, were from the internal affairs division (Propam), the Jakarta Police and the South Jakarta Police.
“We will carry out an examination process regarding violations of the code of ethics. Of course, if we find a criminal act [during the ethics investigation], we will also process the crime in question,” the police chief told reporters last week.
The police now claim that the CCTV at Ferdy’s house was functional when the killing occurred but that the recordings have been either hidden or destroyed.
“We have yet to decide [whether the CCTV footage was broken or hidden away], since the investigation is still ongoing. But, we have found who did it, and we will reveal it once the [investigation] process is finished,” Listyo said.
Potential criminal charges
The police’s chief detective Comr. Gen. Agus Andrianto said on Thursday that police might commence a full-blown criminal investigation into the 25 police officers, should the ethics breach investigation reveal that there had been criminal acts, particularly concerning the obstruction of justice.
Only Second Agent Richard – who was Ferdy’s aide de camp – has been named as a murder suspect so far. Richard is currently detained in the police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) detention center. He faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, should he be found guilty of murder.
The Indonesian Police Watchdog (IPW) welcomed Ferdy’s detention, saying that it would help to “smooth out the investigation process. “[We] know that the current investigation process involves serious code of ethics violations, which includes damaging the crime scene and removing evidence,” IPW chairman Sugeng Teguh Santoso said on Sunday.
If found guilty of ethics breaches, Ferdy could face dismissal from the force, Sugeng said. The police general could also be charged with a felony should there be any indication that he violated Article 221 or Article 233 of the Criminal Code on evidence tampering, he added.
Richard has applied for justice collaborator (JC) status on Sunday, his lawyers said as quoted by Tempo.co, opening the possibility for the police to uncover the involvement of other suspects, including the alleged masterminds, in the case.
Policing the police
This is not the first time the police have been under public scrutiny over their handling of cases involving their members.
Two police officers, Brig. Rahmat Kadir Mahulette and chief Brig. Ronny Bugis, were found guilty in 2020 of attacking former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan with acid in 2017. Critics said the police should have dug deeper into the case given that both officers were unlikely to be acting alone.
In December 2020, police killed members of the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) during an alleged shootout on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. Two police officers behind the incident – while found guilty of the killings – were not given prison sentences, as the South Jakarta District Court ruled the they were acting in self-defense.
The National Commission on Human Rights had previously declared the unlawful killing of the FPI members a human rights violation and recommended that the perpetrators be prosecuted. (ahw)
