TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - It is increasingly clear that the charges against Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan were mostly fabricated. The National Ombudsman found suspected fraud in the police investigation. The prosecution's case against Novel, concluded the Ombudsman, should not even have qualified for a court hearing.
Irregularities were first suspected when a 2004 resolved case involving Novel was regurgitated. He was, at the time, posted in a Bengkulu district police precinct and charged with allegedly allowing his subordinates to torture some bird-nest thieves. The case should have been closed after Novel was given a strong warning that same year. Unfortunately, the police dug it up when Novel, as a KPK investigator, exposed the corruption inside the National Police traffic division.
First of all, the police should not have brought up the case, given its improper investigation process. A series of irregularities came to light after the Ombudsman team intervened and looked into the case. It discovered, for example, that Brig. Yogi Hariyanto, who reported Novel again in 2012, was not even present at the scene, although as a witness filing the report, he should have been present at the incident.
The watchdog organization also found that the report on the retrieval of the bullet lodged in the leg of Irwansyah Siregar, one of the thieves shot by the Bengkulu police, was forged. The report said that the bullet was taken out at the Kramat Jati police hospital, instead of at the Bhayangkara Jitra hospital in Bengkulu, the actual location. The police was also suspected of using in the report the medical data belonging to a totally different patient named Rahman who had nothing to do with the case.
It is hoped that National Police Chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti will follow up on the ombudsman's recommendations without delay. Convinced that his men had acted professionally, Badrodin has so far refused to drop the case. It should now be clear that the case was mishandled all along. The police should instead look within its own organization for suspected procedural abuse, and penalize the guilty officers for tampering with the evidence, clearly a violation of the police code of ethics.
Next, Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo must respond to the ombudsman's findings and recommendations by issuing an order to stop prosecution (SKPP). The prosecution certainly has no cause to continue a case that is supported by suspected forgery and procedural abuse.
The prosecution could face legal problems if it insists on taking Novel's case to court. If it continues to persist that the police evidence is legal, then it's up to President Joko Widodo to take a firm stance and order the Attorney-General's Office to issue a deponering, or an order to dismiss a case in the public's interest, but this should be the last resort.
However, unlike SKPP, a deponering assumes there is sufficient evidence to charge a suspect. If the measure is enforced, it would be a big disadvantage to Novel, as he should not have been charged in the first place, as revealed by Ombudsman's findings. The most appropriate step for the prosecution is to issue a SKPP to put an end to this bizarre case. (*)
