October 20, 2023
JAKARTA – Jakarta Police investigators will question Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chair Firli Bahuri in relation to a graft and extortion investigation connected to former agriculture minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo.
The investigators summoned Firli for questioning at the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta on Friday at 2 p.m., said Jakarta Police special criminal investigations director Sr. Comr. Ade Safri Simanjuntak.
“We have sent the summons to question FB, as the chairman of the KPK, as a witness in the case,” Ade told the press on Wednesday, using Firli’s initials, as quoted by kompas.com.
The police started their investigation on Aug. 12 of last year after receiving a public complaint about alleged extortion and blackmail by unidentified KPK leaders. They have not disclosed the identities of the complainants, citing confidentiality and the sensitivity of the case.
The police have questioned 45 witnesses so far, ranging from Agriculture Ministry officials to former and current KPK employees. Investigators questioned Kevin Egananta, one of Firli’s aides, and KPK public complaints director Tomi Murtomo this past week.
One of the witnesses questioned in the investigation was Semarang Police chief Sr. Comr Irwan Anwar, who was suspected of being a middleman in the alleged extortion.
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Reports of extortion began circulating among the public when an undated photograph appearing to show Firli, Syahrul and Irwan in a private meeting on a badminton court in Jakarta went viral on social media. Some observers speculated that the image was of a meeting where Firli allegedly sought to extort some S$1 billion (US$727 million) from Syahrul.
Syahrul, who is currently being detained by the KPK after being named as suspect in a bribery case in the Agriculture Ministry, appeared for questioning by Jakarta Police investigators on Oct. 5, the same day he tendered his resignation from his ministerial post.
Ade added that the police had sent a letter to the KPK Supervisory Board on Wednesday, signed by Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Karyoto, requesting that the board join the extortion investigation.
Firli has denied any wrongdoing. While he confirmed that he had met with Syahrul on a badminton court in Jakarta, he said the meeting occurred in March of last year, long before the antigraft body started its Agriculture Ministry graft investigation in early 2023.
“At that time, Syahrul wasn’t a suspect or a person of interest in the KPK’s investigation. The meeting was also not my idea,” Firli said in a recent statement.
He added that the extortion allegation was a way for graft suspects to “strike back” at him for prosecuting them.
The alleged extortion involving Syahrul is another addition to the list of controversies surrounding Firli, a police general, since he started his term as the KPK chair.
When he first took office in 2019, he reportedly demanded that the antigraft body’s employees take a controversial civic knowledge test as part of the procedure to change their status to that of state employees. The test was later used to justify the dismissal of dozens of KPK employees, including investigators, in 2021.
Several investigators fired by the KPK were later recruited as civil servants at the police force, assigned to be part of the National Police’s special antigraft squad formed by police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo following the layoffs.
In March, Listyo appointed Karyoto, who was then serving as the KPK enforcement division head, as the Jakarta Police head, as part of a reshuffle within the National Police following a scandal involving former internal affairs chief Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo. Karyoto replaced then-Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Fadil Imran, who was believed to have close ties with Ferdy.
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Firli was also accused of meeting with graft suspects and leaking investigation documents to people of interest in an investigation. The latest was when he allegedly leaked internal investigation documents to M. Idris Froyoto Sihite, an Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry official.
But the KPK supervisory board dropped its ethics probe after concluding that there was not enough evidence to proceed against Firli.
Aside from urging Firli to answer the Friday summons, Praswad Nugraha of the IM57+ Institute, a corruption watchdog established by former KPK employees, also called for the KPK chairman’s resignation.
He cited the 2019 KPK Law, which requires KPK commissioners to be suspended from their position if they are implicated in a legal case.
“Firli should step down to maintain the antigraft body’s credibility,” he said, adding that the police should announce the suspect in the extortion case quickly. (kuk)