New Police Chief's Explanation About Novel Before Commission III

National Police Chief General Idham Aziz working meeting with DPR Commission III (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - The National Police Chief, General Idham Aziz, came to Commission III of the DPR. This is the first time he has faced a lawmaker with four stars on his shoulders. He came for the meeting. There are many agendas, one of which he reports on is the case of pouring hard water on KPK senior investigator Novel Baswedan which occurred in April 2017.

When he became Kapolda Metro in July 2017, Idham could not reveal the case. When he was promoted to Kabareskrim in January 2019, this case was also not revealed. Many hope that this case can be revealed when Idham becomes the National Police Chief after being inaugurated on November 1.

The Novel case has had a long journey, more than two years. In front of Commission III of the DPR, today, he told a lot about the progress of the handling of this case. He said that the National Police had involved many parties to uncover the Novel case. Starting from the Australian Police (AFP), to other parties in the country. However, the perpetrator of pouring hard water on Novel's face is unknown until now.

AFP has helped the Police to analyze 78 CCTVs which are evidence in this case. In addition, they will also check the guest list of hotels, rented houses and boarding houses around the scene, as well as monitor 114 chemical shops located within a radius of 1 kilometer from the location.

"Coordinate with the AFP (Australian Federal Police) for this," said National Police Chief General Idham Aziz during a working meeting with Commission III of the DPR, at the DPR Building, Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday, November 20.

National Police Chief General Idham Aziz working meeting with DPR Commission III (Mery Handayani / VOI)

Meanwhile, domestic parties invited to cooperate with the police are the KPK, Kompolnas, Komnas HAM, Ombudsman and professional experts. However, it has not produced maximum results. Because said Aziz, each case has a different level of difficulty depending on the existence of evidence. There are cases that are easy to solve, some are difficult, he said.

Examples of cases that are easy to uncover are the murder in Pulomas, Jakarta on December 26, 2016. This case is easy to uncover because CCTV footage clearly describes the perpetrator. Meanwhile, a case that is difficult to solve, for example is the unnatural death of a student at the University of Indonesia Akseyna Ahad Dori on March 26, 2015. He was found dead in Lake Kenanga, the University of Indonesia complex with a backpack containing five blocks of stones. The case was not revealed until now.

"Even though 28 witnesses have been examined and confiscated evidence. However, more than 3.5 years have not been able to reveal it," he said.

For the Novel case, based on Komnas Ham's recommendation, the police formed an expert team and a fact-finding team consisting of 7 academics with different disciplines and expertise. The National Police also formed a technical team that has coordinated with the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore to examine the victim's medical history and conduct a deepening of the perpetrator's sketch with 282 data we got from the Disdukcapil

In addition, said Idham, the National Police also provided the widest possible access to the KPK to verify access to investigations carried out by the Police.