KPK Will Consider This Before Giving Firli Legal Aid

Former KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The interim chairman of the KPK, Nawawi Pomolango, said that there had been no decision regarding the provision of legal assistance to Firli Bahuri, who was inactive as the Chairman of the KPK for being a suspect at Polda Metro Jaya. He said, there were several considerations such as not to tolerate corrupt practices in his institution. Firli is known to be a suspect in the alleged extortion or acceptance of gratuities from former Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo. "We consider many things because we have committed this institution to be a zero-tolerance institution rather than corruption issues," said Nawawi as quoted from YouTube KPK RI, Tuesday, November 28. "That will be part of our consideration whether we will provide assistance or not to those concerned," he continued. The official Firli was named as a suspect based on the results of the case conducted on Wednesday, November 22. The police suspect that he was involved in the extortion and acceptance of 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.