KPK Claims It Has No Authority in Red Book Scandal Inquiry
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25 October 2019 07:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced that it will not follow suit in ceasing the investigation of the high-stakes case known as the “red book scandal,” which is derived from the red financial records book that kept tabs of an alleged graft implicating the nation’s police chief.
The corruption watchdog’s spokesperson, Febri Diansyah, asserted that the authority to drop the case lies in the hands of the national police institution or Polri.
“The Polri investigators are the ones that surely have the authority to continue or cease a case,” said Febri on Thursday, October 24.
Moreover, KPK revealed that its members are limited to a passive role in handling the case and do not have the authority to either agree or disagree with the decisions regarding the case’s outlook.
“The main case’s domain is within the police institution,” he said.
On October 31, 2018, the Indonesian national police decided to stop the investigation of the case that controversially saw its main piece of evidence tampered by two police members-turned-KPK investigators. The red financial record book that had several pages are torn, which was originally believed to contain the list of major national figures.
“The fact is that no traces of evidence tampering were found in the book,” said Polri Insp. Gen. Muhammad Iqbal at the police headquarters on Thursday, October 24.
Both policemen allegedly tore 15 pages out of the book, which was recorded in a CCTV footage, that happened at KPK’s collaboration room. This recording was recently published publically by Indonesialeaks.
M ROSSENO AJI