TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Advocate for Novel Baswedan, Saor Siagian, has lamented the police’s move in holding a closed crime scene reconstruction of the acid attack case against his client. Saor said the public should be allowed to witness the process.

“I don’t understand what’s on the police mind. There should be no reason for restricting the access to the public, especially the press,” Saor told Tempo on Friday, February 7.

According to him, a crime scene reconstruction is just the police’s way of seeking evidence. “Are the police trying to hide something?”

The lawyer also questioned the police’s sudden decision to hold the reconstruction. While in fact, when the anti-graft body investigator was grilled by the police, he demanded to be confronted with the suspects.

“[The request] has not been made to date. The investigators ‘jump’ to a reconstruction process.”

Early hours of today, February 7, Jakarta Metro Police conducted the crime scene reconstruction of the terror in Novel’s residence in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. The press was barred from getting close to the site.

Novel Baswedan was splashed with acid liquid on April 11, 2017, after he performed dawn prayer at a mosque near his home. Two years after, the police named two active policemen suspects, Ronny Bugis and Rahmat Kadir Mahulette. The two claimed they deemed Novel as a traitor.

AHMAD FAIZ