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KPK needs court order to release taped proof of cop plot
Jakarta Post - June 8, 2015
Novel's lawyer Bahrain said that the MK had to follow up on Novel's revelation during a hearing at the court on May 25.
At that time, Novel testified that wiretapped conversations could prove that all charges against Novel and KPK commissioners Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto were a scheme to weaken the KPK after it launched a graft probe into then National Police Education Institute (Lemdikpol) head Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan in January.
"We have submitted the request to the MK, but we have not heard anything back. It is legal for the KPK to reveal its wiretapping activities as long as there is a court order. The recordings could also tell the public that that all threats faced by KPK officials, including investigators, [working on Budi's case] were part of the scheme to criminalize the KPK," Bahrain told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Separately, a civil society group expressed similar concerns on Sunday, saying the pattern of the current criminalization of the KPK was similar to that of a previous standoff between the KPK and the National Police in 2009 in which the KPK bugged a series of conversations on devising a scheme to charge then KPK commissioners Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto.
"In 2009, there was a scheme to prosecute Bibit and Chandra and it could be that the current standoff has employed the same method," Alghiffari Aksa of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) said at a media conference.
When contacted by the Post on Sunday, Novel declined to comment further. "I will not comment on it further. Please confirm with KPK leaders [whether the KPK wants to present the recordings at a future MK hearing]," Novel said.
Meanwhile, none of the five KPK leaders confirmed the existence of the recordings.
KPK commissioner Johan Budi said he knew nothing about it as it could have taken place prior to his appointment in March after Abraham and Bambang were removed from office following the National Police's move to prosecute them in two criminal cases.
"Please confirm it with [KPK commissioners] Pak Adnan Pandu Praja, Zulkarnain or Pak Bambang," said Johan, who served as KPK deputy head of prevention before his promotion.
In the wake of the KPK and National Police standoff in 2009, during a court hearing in an MK judicial review of the KPK Law, then MK chief justice Mahfud MD ordered the KPK to present conversations it had tapped on a scheme to charge Bibit and Chandra.
In its ruling, which favored the KPK, the MK said: "After hearing the recordings, we [...] found facts indicating the engineering or fabrication of evidence or at least conversations between law enforcers and Anggodo Widjojo [an alleged middleman in a bribery case] leading to the potential fabrication of evidence so the two plaintiffs [Bibit and Chandra] could be named suspects or defendants."
After the MK ruling, Bibit and Chandra were reinstalled as KPK leaders after months of being suspended from their posts to focus on their legal cases.
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