TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The police arrested Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan in his residence early on Friday, May 1, 2015.
“Novel’s wife just called me, the police have apprehended him,” one of Novel’s colleagues with the Indonesian graft-busters told Tempo on Friday.
According the arrest warrant shown to Novel’s wife, Novel was arrested for skipping two police questioning sessions in a case in which he was suspected of gunning down a swallow’s nest thief in 2004 when he was still a policeman with the Bengkulu Police.
Tempo magazine once covered irregularities centering on Novel’s case in October 2012, after the KPK named Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo a suspect in alleged corruption surrounding the procurement of simulator equipment at the National Police Traffic Department.
In 2004, Novel was the chief of the Bengkulu City Police’s criminal investigation unit. Eight years later as a KPK investigator he spearheaded an investigation into Djoko Susilo’s case, triggering simmering tensions between both institutions that prompted then President Yudhoyono to step in and order the cessation of Novel’s case.
MUHAMAD RIZKI