Giving Legal Aid To Firli Bahuri Just Terminated By The KPK Tomorrow

KPK interim Chairman Nawawi Pomolango/PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has not discussed the issue of providing legal assistance to the inactive KPK chairman Firli Bahuri, who is now a suspect in the alleged extortion or acceptance of gratuities from former Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo.

This was conveyed by the Chairman of the KPK, Nawawi Pomolango, after holding an internal leadership meeting today, Monday, November 27. He said the decision to provide legal assistance for Firli would be decided tomorrow, Tuesday, November 28.

"Tomorrow we will schedule to address whether we will provide legal assistance (given, ed) to the person concerned or not," Nawawi told reporters at the KPK's Merah Putih building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Monday, November 27.

Nawawi said that this discussion had not been held in a leadership meeting. This is because this activity has not yet been completed even though it has been discussed for up to three hours.

"Including the material whether we will provide legal assistance to Pak Firli after the temporary suspension phase has not yet been reached," he said.

Even so, Nawawi said his institution must implement zero tolerance. "We consider many things," he said.

"Because we have a commitment this institution is an institution that must be zero tolerance rather than a corruption issue. That will be part of our consideration whether to provide assistance or not to the person concerned," continued Nawawi.

As previously reported, Firli was officially named a suspect based on the results of the case title conducted on Wednesday, November 22. The police suspect he was involved in extortion and receiving gratuities.

Several pieces of evidence that became the basis for determining the suspect were foreign exchange documents worth Rp7.4 billion. Then, there were also the results of the extraction of 21 cellphones. In the case of alleged extortion and acceptance of gratuities, Firli was charged with Article 12e, 12B or Article 11 of Law number 31 of 1999 concerning the eradication of corruption in conjunction with Article 65 of the Criminal Code. Firli faces life imprisonment.