The Smell Of Immigration Excuses Regarding The Movement Of Harun Masiku At Soetta Airport

Aaron Masiku (Source: infocaleg.com)

JAKARTA - The Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights finally spoke up about the existence of the suspect who gave bribes to the former commissioner of the General Election Commission (KPU) Wahyu Setiawan, namely Harun Masiku. They said that the PDI-P candidate returned to Indonesia on January 7 from Singapore and landed at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang, Banten.

They argued that the information on the crossing carried out by the fugitive Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had long been known due to the restructuring of the Immigration Management System (Siskim) at Terminal 2F of Soetta Airport.

"We are currently doing a restructuring of Simkim which is currently in process. Later, whether there is something to do with it or not, because with the Simkim restructuring, this has an impact on data and system updates in technical systems," said the Head of Public Relations and General Affairs at the Directorate General of Immigration. Arvin Gumilang during a press conference at the Kemenkumham Office, Jalan Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, Wednesday, January 22.

Even though he argued that the system arrangement could have an impact on the crossing data, however, according to Arvin, this kind of thing is not uncommon. "It is unusual, but if the lights go out at Soetta Airport there has been. Is this something related or not we do deepening. Is there a connection because we are restructuring? We are still doing some deepening," he said.

The immigration authorities may argue that the system arrangement is the reason they are slow to realize that Harun has returned to Indonesia, however, criminal law expert from Trisakti University Abdul Fickar Hadjar doubted the statement made at the press conference.

According to him, the Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights should be the most informed agency when Harun returned to Indonesia from Singapore. Moreover, this agency has a duty to look at public traffic from within and outside the country.

"In my opinion there is no systemic reason that can be used as an argument to claim that it is too late to find out. Because once HM (Harun Masiku) re-entered Indonesia, the passport was scanned and stamped, meaning that it was recorded on the immigration equipment," said Fickar to VOI via text message, Wednesday. , January 22.

In addition, Fickar also said, on the day of the hand-arrest operation (OTT), namely Wednesday, January 8, immigration and the Minister of Law and Human Rights (Menkumham) Yassona Laoly confidently said Harun was still abroad, to be precise in Singapore. "Is this a deliberate act as an alibi or what interpretation will be given of this incident?" asked this criminal law expert.

Possible snare obstruction of justice

How slippery Harun Masiku was from being caught by the KPK was considered by the public because there were parties who helped the bribe giver escape. If the allegations are true, said Fickar, it is not impossible that the party assisting the bribery suspect will be subject to Article 21 of Law Number 31 Year 1999 as amended in Law Number 20 Year 2001 regarding Corruption Eradication.

It is known that this article regulates penalties for those who obstruct justice or obstruct the investigation of a corruption case. The KPK has accused several people of being involved in attempting to obstruct the investigation of a corruption case. One of them is advocate Fredrich Yunadi who is a former lawyer for the former Chairman of the Indonesian Parliament, Setya Novanto, who was found guilty in the e-KTP megacorruption case.

Returning to the matter of implementing article 21 or obstruction of justice, Fickar said that if there is evidence related to attempts at manipulation of information during Harun Masiku's escape, then that article can be imposed on the perpetrator later. "This action can be interpreted as obstructing the investigation as stipulated in article 21 of the Corruption Act," said Fickar.

Regarding the use of this article, anti-graft institutions have also spoken up. Plt. KPK spokesman for the prosecution department Ali Fikri said that his party still did not have the courage to speculate about the application of the obstruction of justice article regarding Harun Masiku's escape.

His institution, said Ali, preferred to wait for the results of the immigration's deepening, which said that there was interference with their equipment at Soetta Airport, when Harun was crossing from outside to inside the country.

"We will follow first, what are the obstacles, we will first follow the deepening. We do not want to speculate, whether it is a deliberate factor and other things because the official information has not been conveyed by the Director General. We first follow the procedure," said Ali at the Red House. Putih KPK, Kuningan Persada, Wednesday, January 22, told reporters.

He also emphasized that currently the KPK has collaborated with the police to arrest the fugitive suspect. However, the current obstacle is that the anti-graft agency does not know for sure where Harun is hiding. "So far the Corruption Eradication Commission along with the assistance of the National Police continues to seek and arrest HAR suspects," he said.

It is known, in the case of bribery related to the interim replacement (PAW) of members of the 2019-2024 DPR RI, Harun was named a suspect in grafting bribes by the KPK along with Saeful, who was later referred to as a high-ranking PDI Perjuangan staff.

Meanwhile, as a recipient of bribes, the KPK appointed the former commissioner of the General Election Commission (KPU) Wahyu Setiawan along with Agustiani Tio Fridelina (ATF) who is a former member of the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) who are his confidants.

In this case, Wahyu is said to have asked for an operational fee of Rp. 900 million to change the results of the KPU plenary regarding PAW members of the DPR RI to replace Nazarudin Kiemas who was a PDIP candidate from the South Sumatra I electoral district who died.