Unresolved Novel Baswedan Case Might Be Presented to US Congress

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Amnesty International Asia Pacific manager of advocacy Fransisco Bencosme offered to present the unsolved case of acid attack against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan to the United States Congress.

He said the step was necessary so the US Congress could urge the Indonesian government to solve the investigation that to date still lacks significant results.

Fransisco Bencosme said in his visit to the KPK headquarters on Friday that the group had access to policymakers in the US Congress that could pressure the Indonesian government into solving the case. 

Read: Police to Carry Out Novel Baswedan Case Expose in Late April

During his visit, he also met with Novel Baswedan and KPK employees to discuss issues on the terror attack. Fransisco claimed the government had failed to solve the case and this was a reflection of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s failure to strictly monitor the country’s corruption eradication sector for the past five years.

In the meeting, Novel hoped that the support from the international community could help solve terror cases against KPK employees, which he claimed the Indonesian government had overlooked.

“Letting these terrors happen is equivalent to conceding other terror acts that might happen in the future,” he said. 

In February 2019, Amnesty International Indonesia brought the Novel Baswedan case to the United Nations Human Rights Council. 

M ROSSENO AJI