KPK Called Arresting Harun Masiku More Difficult Than Arresting KP Minister Edhy Prabowo

Deputy Chairman of the KPK Nawawi Pomolango in the press conference for the determination of the KPK suspect (Photo: KPK public relations)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) admits that it is difficult to catch former PDI-P candidate Harun Masiku who is a bribe in the bribery case for Inter-Time Replacement (PAW) members of the 2019-2024 DPR RI.

In fact, KPK Deputy Chairman Nawawi Pomolango admitted that it was more difficult to catch Harun than to arrest Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Edhy Prabowo, who was a suspect in the bribery case for exporting fries or lobster seeds.

According to Nawawi, this difficulty occurred because, unlike Edhy, Harun now no longer uses electronic devices to communicate.

"Indeed there are technical difficulties. For example, it is suspected that HM (Harun Masiku) is no longer using communication devices such as cellphones and others, that is a temporary suspicion. It is different from a minister whose communication tools are very open and continue to be used," said Nawawi. Crosscheck discussion show that airs on YouTube, Sunday, November 29th.

Furthermore, a number of attempts have been made by the KPK to find the fugitive. In addition to communicating with the police and including Harun Masiku on the wanted list (DPO), the KPK also often displays Harun Masiku's face in every coordination and supervision activity in various regions in the hope that there will be people who can report the whereabouts of his fugitive.

In addition, the KPK has also conducted various evaluations to find out why it is difficult for it to find Harun Masiku. In fact, he admitted that he had repeatedly summoned KPK Deputy for Enforcement, Karyoto and stated that he had given permission if the task force searching for fugitives needed assistance personnel. Moreover, Harun is indeed trying to keep getting rid of traces of his escape.

"There the task force that actually carried out the fingerprints at the end asked another task force to help back up. So we have done this in the process of searching for HM," he said.

Meanwhile, when alluded to the many requests that the task force team that was looking for Harun Masiku be replaced by the task force that arrested former Secretary of the Supreme Court (MA) Nurhadi and KP Minister Edhy Prabowo, all of whom were led by senior investigator Novel Baswedan, Nawawi did not answer definitively.

He only said that the current team was still being evaluated. "We also cannot deny that the teams are different from one another. So that is what we ask to be evaluated and hopefully the evaluation steps of the team that conducted the search for HM can produce results," he said.

Previously reported, even though the KPK had succeeded in arresting Edhy Prabowo who was caught in the bribery of the fry, the public still urged the anti-graft commission to immediately arrest Harun Masiku.

The voice for Novel to lead the team searching for the fugitive was also heard loudly as he succeeded in leading his team to arrest a number of corruption suspects. One of those who asked Novel to lead the search for Harun was Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).

ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana assessed that the success of the task force team, one of which was led by KPK investigator Novel Baswedan, should be used as evaluation material by the leadership, especially the Deputy for Enforcement, in order to arrest the perpetrators of corruption crimes.

Moreover, the team has succeeded in arresting fugitive corruptors such as Nurhadi and his son-in-law, Riezky Herbiyono.

"Some of the cases that have succeeded in arresting fugitives or elites from the executive are investigators who succeeded in arresting Nurhadi and Riezky Herbiyono," said Kurnia to reporters, Thursday, November 26.

Seeing this good track record, he urged the team led by Novel to conduct a search for the former PDI-P candidate, Harun Masiku, who became a bribe suspect for the former Commissioner of the General Elections Commission (KPU) Wahyu Setiawan.

In addition, he again urged the KPK to disband Harun's search team, which was deemed not to have made significant progress in the past nine months.

"There must be an evaluation from the leadership of the Deputy for Enforcement and Deputy for Investigation to other investigators. For example in the Harun Masiku case, ICW has urged the team to be disbanded and replaced with a team that has a good track record throughout 2020," he said.

"So, the evaluation must be carried out. Either the evaluation of the leadership to the deputy or the deputy to the task forces that we have judged so far is not sufficient to detect the perpetrator of the crime in this case the task force for the Harun Masiku case," he added.