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Attorney General says Budi Gunawan case lacks evidence
Jakarta Post - March 16, 2015
The antigraft body officially transferred Budi's dossiers to the AGO on Tuesday, which later intended to pass the case over to the National Police, following a controversial pretrial decision that ordered the KPK, which is prohibited by law from dropping a graft investigation, to stop investigating the police general.
"That's what I have heard from the team investigating [Budi's case]. I will soon convene the team members to get further information about it," Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
The pretrial decision, which according to experts has no legal basis, annulled Budi's graft suspect status and the lack of evidence in Budi's dossiers, as claimed by the AGO, could further be used as a justification for the AGO not to rename Budi a suspect in its investigation.
Prasetyo said that the lack of strong evidence given by the KPK in Budi's dossiers was due to the KPK's failure "to try its best" to investigate the police general, who suspiciously had billions of rupiahs worth of total deposits in his bank accounts.
In Jan. 13, the KPK named Budi a suspect for financial misdeeds in his capacity as head of the Career Development Bureau at the National Police headquarters from 2004 to 2006, when he amassed a total of Rp 95 billion (US$7.2 million) that he allegedly collected from bribes and gratuities, including bribes paid by officers in pursuit of higher positions in the force.
Prasetyo, a former politician from the pro-government Nasdem Party, once again reiterated his intention to transfer the case to the National Police should the AGO not find enough evidence to name Budi a suspect by citing an agreement signed in 2014 by the KPK, the National Police and the AGO.
"The agreement is about the handling of cases by the three law enforcement institutions. One of the points agreed in the agreement is if one of the three institutions has conducted the same investigation in the past then the respective institution will be allowed to investigate the case," Prasetyo said.
Budi will likely be cleared of charges should his case be transferred to his office because in 2010 the National Police had investigated his large bank accounts and later claimed that they did not find any irregularities in the huge amount of money that went in and out on Budi's accounts.
Acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi said that the antigraft body would not intervene in any future decision made by the AGO on the fate of Budi's case.
"We have officially transferred the case to the AGO," Johan said. Former KPK commissioner Haryono Umar reminded current KPK leaders that they still had the right to supervise Budi's case through a joint expose forum to ensure the AGO investigators make progress in their investigation.
"The KPK has the authority to conduct coordination and supervision with the AGO. Through this mechanism the KPK could watch all the progress made by the AGO on Budi's case," Haryono said.
Separately, former KPK adviser Abdullah Hemahahua emphasized that the KPK had never named someone a suspect without collecting at least two strong pieces of evidence in its graft investigations, reminding the AGO not to rashly transfer Budi's case to the police without informing the KPK beforehand.
"KPK leaders cannot just give away the case to the AGO without watching the progress of the investigation at the AGO. If the AGO needs more data then it simply asks the KPK leaders for more in the future," Abdullah said.
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