REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Laode M Syarif, deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), has said that a joint team, comprising of police and KPK personnel, is yet to be formed to thoroughly investigate an sulfuric acid attack on Novel Baswedan, a senior investigator of KPK.
"KPK has not yet formed a joint team because we do not know the role we will be playing in the joint team," he said here on Tuesday.
The anti-graft agency is waiting for the latest update on the police investigation of the acid attack, he stated.
"Until today, we have not received the latest update from the regional (Jakarta) police team," he noted.
Meanwhile, Febri Diansyah, spokesman of KPK, remarked that based on the Law No 30 Year 2002, KPK has asked the authorities to investigate and handle only corruption cases.
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"KPK, of course, could carry out its tasks as long as it is in line with the law. So far, because this case concerns general crime, we think we should wait for the update on investigation results from the police," he remarked.
He lauded an attention from President Joko Widodo on the attack case. The Head of State on Monday summoned National Police Chief General Tito Karnavian to report the case to the president directly.
"The president has supported the case since the beginning by condemning the attackers, ordering the Police Chief to investigate, summoning the Police Chief after 111 days. We should appreciate it," he said.
He hoped the perpetrator would be caught soon.
"Further coordination will be carried out at the utmost," he noted.
Earlier, Widodo asked 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 carried out. In principle, we want to immediately solve the problem," Tito explained after reporting the case to the president on Monday.
Novel was attacked by two men riding on a motorbike who sprayed sulfuric acid on his face while he was returning to his house after morning prayers on April 11, 2017. The chief KPK investigator was blinded that he had to undergo an eye operation.
The incident took place when Novel led an investigation into the electronic-ID card corruption case, implicating a number of high-ranking officials and many lawmakers.
After more than three months, no significant progress was 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 case. Five suspects had been put in detention, but they were released later after police found nothing to connect them to the case, Tito revealed.
"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 sulfuric acid in the process of investigations," he explained.
Tito stated that 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.
Tito noted that the police already had an important witness who could help uncover the case, but the witness did not want to be identified for his own security.
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