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House inquiry would obstruct e-ID probe: KPK
Jakarta Post - April 22, 2017
The House of Representatives plans to exercise its legislative right of inquiry in a bid to force the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to release interview records where the alleged roles of a number of lawmakers in the case are said to be mentioned.
The KPK has strongly rejected the demand to release such classified investigation documents in the e-ID case, which has implicated dozens of politicians, high-ranking government officials and businessmen, describing it as a political maneuver to obstruct the investigation.
KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said that submitting the records to the House would hamper KPK investigators' work in delving further into the role of other suspects in the e-ID case, which the commission believes resulted in Rp 2.3 trillion (US$172 million) in state losses.
"I emphasize that the KPK will not open those documents because it risks obstructing the ongoing e-ID probe. We hope [the House] will not drag the legal case into politics," Febri told reporters at KPK headquarters in South Jakarta on Friday.
The documents in question are transcripts and video recordings of the interrogation of Hanura politician and former legislator Miryam S. Haryani.
The anti-graft body has so far named three suspects in the graft case. They are former senior Home Ministry officials Irman and Sugiharto, who are now on trial, as well as businessman Andi Agustinus, aka Andi Narogong.
In a separate but related case, the KPK has named Miryam, a former member of House Commission II overseeing home affairs, a perjury suspect. During an e-ID trial hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Miryam, who was under oath, retracted statements she made during the interrogation in question.
Testifying during another trial hearing of the case, top KPK investigator Novel Baswedan, who has been undergoing medical treatment in Singapore after an acid attack by two unidentified assailants, said that Miryam had confessed during an interrogation that at least five House lawmakers had intimidated her after she revealed to the KPK about the distribution of illicit kickbacks related to the Rp 5.9 trillion project to lawmakers.
The five are the Golkar Party's Aziz Syamsuddin, the Gerindra Party's Desmond J. Mahesa, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) Masinton Pasaribu and the Hanura Party's Sarifuddin Sudding, according to Novel.
Describing it as slander after Novel's testimony made headlines, Commission III during a hearing with the KPK on Wednesday, pushed the anti-graft body to reveal Miryam's dossier and the CCTV recording of the KPK interrogation room to substantiate Novel's court testimony.
To strengthen its cause, Commission III is set to launch an inquiry to further push the KPK to comply with the House's demands. However, Febri said the KPK would not succumb to pressure from the House. "An inquiry right should not be used to intervene in a legal case," Febri added.
Commission III chairman Bambang Soesatyo said the KPK needed to release the documents "so we can see whether our names were actually mentioned."
Masinton, meanwhile, argued that exercising the inquiry right was "important to uphold a transparent legal process." Commission III deputy chairman Benny Kabur Harman claimed six out of 10 House factions supported the move.
Gadjah Mada University's (UGM) Corruption Studies Center (PUKAT) director Zainal Arifin Mochtar said an inquiry right was a political tool by the House, the purpose of which was to scrutinize government policy. The right could not be used to investigate law enforcement bodies, he added.
"It is a wrong call and misleading. Investigation documents can only be open in court. Even in the Freedom of Information Law, an investigation document is not included as a public record," he said.
Zainal and activists from the Anti-Corruption Civil Society Group visited the KPK office and met with KPK commissioners on Friday to express their support for fully investigating the e-ID case.
"We believe that the House inquiry initiative is marred by vested interests interfering in the legal process of the e-ID case at the KPK. We call on the House to restrain from intervening in the legal process at the KPK," spokesman for the group, Natalia Subagyo, said.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/04/22/house-inquiry-would-obstruct-e-id-probe-kpk.html.
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