REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo said that he will not interfere in the legal cases being handled by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police.
"To ensure that legal processes run smoothly, there should be no outside interventions from non-governmental organizations, political parties, officials, or myself," Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, stated during an interview with a television station here on Saturday evening.
The president urged the police and the anti-graft body to work in harmony to combat cases of corruption.
"We should give the KPK and the National Police a chance to prove that they have taken correct measures. There should be no intervention over law enforcement. If we interfere in legal processes, the will be a public protest," he pointed out.
The KPK named Commissioner General Budi Gunawan as a graft suspect in connection with certain rewards he allegedly received through suspicious transactions.
It named Gunawan as a suspect just a few days after President Jokowi nominated him as the sole candidate for the post of the national police chief.
Moreover, the Crime Investigation Department (Bareskrim) of the National Police Headquarters arrested KPK Deputy Chairman Bambang Widjojanto on Friday (January 23).
According to Head of the National Police's Public Relations Division Inspector General Ronny F. Sompie, the arrest of the anti-graft agency commissioner did not require the involvement of any force.
"The arrest was done humanely. He (Widjojanto) did not resist arrest. No inhuman action was taken. He is, after all, a state official," he remarked.
Widjojanto was arrested for allegedly prompting witnesses to give false testimony at a session of the Constitutional Court related to a dispute over the election of the head of Kotawaringin district, Central Kalimantan, in July 2010.
A case against Widjojanto was made based on a report (number: LP/67/I/2015/Bareskrim, dated January 15, 2015) by Sugianto Sabran, who is a member of Commission III and part of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle faction of the parliament.
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