Suara.com – A number of former KPK leaders who are members of the Civil Society Coalition wrote to the National Police Chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, to detain Firli Bahuri as a suspect in the alleged criminal act of extortion against former Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL).
This pressure was conveyed by a number of former KPK commissioners, such as Abraham Samad, Muhamamd Jasin and Saut Sitomorang, who came directly to the National Police Headquarters, Newsdelivers.com to hand over the letter.
“If I'm not mistaken, today is the 100th day after Firli was named a suspect,” said Abraham Samad.
Samad said that his party observed that the handling of the Firli Bahuri case seemed to be stalling because there was no progress showing significant progress, one of which was the detention of the suspect.
According to him, Firli Bahuri should have been detained because the crime he committed met the requirements for detention, including the threat of a sentence of more than five years.
“The articles committed by Firli fulfill the requirements for detention,” he said.
Not only that, continued Samad, his party is worried that this case will reduce the level of public trust in law enforcement in the country. Because, in many legal cases involving civilians who are investigated by the police, they seem to be quickly detained. However, in the case of Firli Bahuri, he was not detained.
“If we look at the legal principle of equality before the law, it is imperative that Firli be detained. Why? so that people can see that equality before the law is indeed implemented. “Everyone is equal before the law,” said Samad.
Apart from that, said Samad, the crimes committed by Firli in the Corruption Eradication Committee Law fall into the category of high-level corruption crimes, namely the extortion article. So, if the suspect is not detained it could have social impacts.
Samad also said that in cases that have been going on for a long time, investigators should at least make arrests to prevent the suspect from causing obstacles or immediately affecting the trial process.
“That's our concern,” he said.
Meanwhile, Muhammadi Jasin added that he, as an expert witness who was questioned along with Saud Sitomorang, had conveyed to investigators that Firli Bahuri was worthy of being named a suspect in this case.
Apart from that, he said, based on the article that Firli was accused of, namely Article 12 e with a penalty of five years combined with Article 12B, namely gratification with a penalty of up to 20 years. So it is appropriate to carry out detention to maintain security so that they do not repeat the action or lose important evidence, or run away.
“This is what made our trigger together with everyone present here to immediately encourage the National Police Chief to arrest Filri Bahuri,” said Jasin.
Saut Situmorang revealed that what Firli Bahuri did while working at the KPK, from deputy to leader, was all problematic. When viewed from the law, it must be fair, useful and certain. So, what is happening to Firli now, he said, is unfair.
“Therefore, we came here for legal certainty, for the benefits of law and justice, certainty,” said Saut.
Member of the Civil Society Coalition from the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI) Julius Hebrew said that there is an obligation in handling the Firli Bahuri case to be tried immediately to determine who is guilty. Because, this case does not stand alone, but there is also a corruption case involving Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL).
“As a KPK official, the chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission at the time he was suspected of carrying out extortion, behind the extortion there was also Article 12B of gratification. “So this is a systematic and structural case and Article 36 is not just one article, not just one alleged criminal act, it is structurally important,” said Julius.
According to Julius, when there is a slowdown in the case handling process, what is violated by investigators is their professionalism in examining the case. Apart from that, a slowdown in handling cases has the potential for the police to face pre-trial lawsuits.
Therefore, he said, the Civil Society Coalition also asked the National Police Chief to monitor directly, pushing for priority handling so that the case in question was expedited in all transfers of authority including detention.
“Because the only authority to ensure the duration of the investigation is detention, in the context of coercive measures, the detention of investigators is time limited and must not exceed that time limit,” he said.
Former KPK investigator Novel Baswedan also said that this step was a form of concern for the KPK. So that the completion of the Firli Bahuri case could result in other related cases being investigated as well.
“Regarding the Firli Bahuri case, I am sure he has done a lot. And if this one has not been resolved how can other cases be revealed, and of course by completing it it can have a deterrent effect on anyone tasked with eradicating corruption so that they don't continue to commit corruption. “Moreover, his position at the KPK,” said Novel. (Between)