REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said it would study the result of the meeting on Monday between President Joko Widodo and Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian on progress made in the investigation of the action of terror against a KPK senior investigator Novel Baswedan.
"First we will study the result of the meeting. Certainly KPK hopes that the attackers and intellectual actor behind the attack could be nabbed," KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said here on Monday night.
Febri said the attention shown by the president was seen by KPK a signal that the attackers would not be allowed to go free outside.
"The risk is not only against Novel or other KPK employees but also against those speaking loudly against corruption," Febri said.
He said KPK will coordinate with the state police after the meeting between the president and the police chief.
"Certainly KPK would be able to carry out its duty as long as it is in line with the Law. As the case is more about general crime, we think it is necessary to wait for the progress of investigations by police. A number of steps have been taken. Hopefully, there would be significant progress after the meeting," he said.
Earlier President Joko Widodo asked that police chief General Tito Karnavian to thoroughly unearth the mystery behind the attack on Novel.
"The president wants to solve the case as soon as possible. That is the order from the president. We have reported steps that we have made . In principle we want to immediately solve the problem," Tito said after reporting the case to the president on Monday.
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Novel had been attacked by two men riding on a motorbike by spraying H2SO4 on his face when he walked to his house after morning prayer . The chief KPK investigator was blinded that he had to undergo eye operation.
The incident took place when Novel led investigation into electronic-ID card corruption case implicating a number of high ranking officials and many lawmakers.
After more than three months no significant progress made in the investigation causing suspicions that police were not serious or did not want to bring the case to the open.
Serious attempt to investigate the case followed public pressure and the replacement of the Jakarta police chief.
Police have questioned 59 people as witnesses in the Novel's case and five had been put in detention, but they were released later after police found nothing to connect them to the case, Tito said.
"We already have pictures of 50 CCTV cameras from houses and shops within a radius of 1 kilometers from the place of the incident, and we have visited around 100 chemical shops selling H2SO4, in the process of investigations," he said.
Tito said he did not believe allegation that a police general was involved in the attack on Novel.
Novel had been quoted as saying that he had received information that a police general was behind the attack on him.
Tito said police already had an important witness that could help uncover the case, but the witness did not want to be identified for his own security.
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