KPK Cannot Take Over Alleged Money Laundering Setya Novanto From Bareskrim Polri

Red and White House (Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) cannot arbitrarily take cases handled by other law enforcement officers, including the National Police.

This was conveyed by Acting KPK Spokesperson for Enforcement Sector Ali Fikri in response to the request of the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Society (MAKI) to take over the investigation into the alleged money laundering crime (TPPU) carried out by former Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives Setya Novanto. The case is currently being handled by the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police Headquarters.

"We convey that the taking over of a case by the KPK from other law enforcement officers cannot be carried out immediately," Ali told reporters quoted on Tuesday, February 15.

Ali said there was a mechanism that the KPK had to follow. So, this kind of pressure can not be done arbitrarily.

"We ensure that in our work we always comply with applicable laws," he said.

"Of course there are conditions, process mechanisms and rules of the game that have been confirmed in the law, among which it is stated that there are several conditions as stipulated in Article 10A of the KPK Law," Ali added.

In that article, it is stated that the KPK has the right to take over the investigation or prosecution of perpetrators of corruption crimes carried out by the Police and the Attorney General's Office.

However, the article also explains that there are six reasons why this action was taken, namely that public reports regarding Corruption Crimes were not followed up; the process of handling Corruption Crimes without any settlement or delay without justifiable reasons; and the handling of Corruption Crimes is aimed at protecting the real perpetrators of Corruption Crimes.

Furthermore, expropriation can only be carried out if the handling of Corruption Crimes contains elements of Corruption Crimes; obstacles to handling Corruption Crimes due to interference from executive, judicial, or legislative power holders; or other circumstances which, according to the consideration of the police or the prosecutor's office, the handling of corruption is difficult to carry out properly and can be accounted for.

As for the request to take over the alleged money laundering offense by Setya Novanto, this was conveyed by the MAKI Coordinator, Boyamin Saiman. He said the investigation was stalled at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Unit.

"Because the Bareskrim case is no longer running, this must be taken over by the KPK because the main case of e-KTP corruption is with the KPK," said Boyamin.

In addition, the KPK is also being urged to add new suspects in the alleged money laundering offences. One of the names of the parties who can be named a suspect is businessman Made Oka Masagung.

Made Oka's name emerged because he was suspected of helping the former Golkar Party politician hide the money from the e-KTP corruption with the investment transaction mode in Singapore.

For information, Setya Novanto was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of Rp. 500 million, subsidiary to 3 months in prison. In addition, he was required to pay a replacement money of 7.3 million US dollars minus the Rp5 billion that had been deposited with investigators.

The verdict against Setnov was handed down because he was proven to have received US$7.3 million from the procurement of the e-KTP project which resulted in state losses of up to Rp2.3 trillion. In addition, he is said to have influenced the budgeting process, procurement of goods and services, as well as the project auction process.