REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Police officers should resolve the acid attack against Novel Baswedan, a senior investigator of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Vice President Jusuf Kalla stated. He urged the police to immediately reveal the case. "The police are expected to solve the case of Baswedan immediately," Kalla noted here on Monday.
On April 11, 2017, Baswedan was fatally attacked by two motorcyclists who hurled acid on his face that injured his eyes, particularly the left eye, while he was heading home after performing Fajr, or the Dawn prayer, at a mosque nearby.
Baswedan lost vision in the left eye and has been receiving medical treatment in Singapore. He has returned home but still being treated as outpatient.
The police are yet to identify the perpetrators, after almost a year of investigation.
A number of civil society groups have also proposed the formation of a fact-finding team.
Baswedan, a 40-year-old retired police officer, had joined the anti-graft agency in 2007 and has been frequently terrorized and attacked since then.
In 2012, his motorcycle was seriously damaged after being attacked by supporters of convicted Amran Batalipu, a former district head of Buol in Central Sulawesi Province.
Since 2012, he had also been criminalized; and in 2015, he was named a suspect in a case of maltreatment that had occurred in Bengkulu in 2004 when his subordinates had arrested several swallow nest thieves. Baswedan was head of the Bengkulu Polices criminal investigation unit at that time.
In 2016, Baswedan's motorcycle was hit by a car while driving to the KPK building.