TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) spokesperson Priharsa Nugraha said that KPK employees would gather in front of KPK building on Friday, May 1, 2015, to launch a protest against KPK investigator Novel Baswedan’ arrest by the National Police’s Crime Investigation Directorate (Bareskrim).
“The staffers, including KPK commissioner Johan Budi, have started to gather at 08.00,” Priharsa said at his office on Friday, May 1, 2015.
A staffer said that the employees would march to Bareskrim’s office on Jl. Trunojoyo, South Jakarta.
“If [Novel] is to be arrested, [we] will go to Bareskrim,” the staffer, who asked for anonymity, told Tempo.
Novel Baswedan was arrested by the police at his residence on Friday, May 1, 2015 around 12 a.m. for skipping two police questioning sessions. The police linked novel with a shooting case involving a suspect in a swallow's nest burglary in 2004. Although it was not Novel who shot the suspect, police held him responsible since he was then the head of crime unit at Bengkulu City Police.
In 2012, the case was reopened by the police to arrest Novel, who led an investigation into a corruption case involving National Police’s head of traffic corps Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo. The police decided to revisit the case after the KPK named Comr. Gen Budi Gunawan a suspect in a graft case.
Anti-corruption activists have blasted the police for the arrest, saying police did not provide an opportunity for Novel's lawyer to communicate with and advocate the latter.
“Article 69 of the Criminal Code clearly states that a lawyer has the right to contact the suspect since the arrest,” Muji Kartika Rahayu, Novel’s lawyer, said.
AKBAR TRI KURNIAWAN | MUHAMMAD RIZKI
