Today, The KPK Council Reads Firli Bahuri's Ethics Decision

Former KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Supervisory Board of the Corruption Eradication Commission (Dewas KPK) will read out the verdict on the alleged ethical violation of the inactive chairman of the KPK, Firli Bahuri today, Wednesday, December 27. The verdict will be read out in an ethics trial that is open to the public.

"On December 27, Wednesday at 11 o'clock reading the verdict," said the chairman of the KPK Council, Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean at the KPK, Jakarta, last Friday, December 22.

At that time, Tumpak revealed that actually the KPK Council had already decided the decision on Firli Bahuri's alleged ethical violation based on the results of the deliberation. However, the decision will only be announced to the public on Wednesday, December 27.

Separately, a member of the KPK Council, Syamsuddin Haris, revealed that the KPK Council needed time to draw up details of its decision.

"The decision period is just like that, there must be evidence, there are articles that are violated, some that ease what, burden what, all of that must be written down. Now the assembly is not ready, it takes time and usually the decision is not 1-2 pages, it is quite thick," said Syamsuddin.

In the midst of the ethics process by the KPK Council, Firli Bahuri has submitted his resignation from the KPK to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). However, the resignation faced obstacles.

Acting Chairman of the KPK, Nawawi Pomolango, said Firli Bahuri sent a letter to Jokowi to be dismissed from the KPK, not resign. Therefore, Firli's letter of dismissal cannot be further processed.

For information, Law Number 19 of 2019 concerning the KPK, Article 32 paragraph (1) states that the KPK leadership stops or is dismissed due to death, the term of office ends, commits a disgraceful act, becomes a defendant for committing a crime, is permanently unable or continuously for more than 3 months, resigns, or is subject to sanctions based on law.

A similar explanation was also conveyed by the Presidential Special Staff Coordinator, Ari Dwipayana. He said Firli Bahuri's resignation could not be processed further.

"The Presidential Decree for the dismissal of Mr. Firli Bahuri as the head of the KPK cannot be further processed because in the letter, Firli Bahuri did not mention resigning, but stated that he had resigned," said Ari.

He said the statement to stop was not known as a condition for dismissing the KPK leadership as regulated in Article 32 of the KPK Law.

Responding to this, Firli Bahuri revised his resignation letter from the KPK. He admitted that he had sent back his resignation letter which had been corrected to President Joko Widodo.

Firli Bahuri hopes that his revised resignation letter can be processed further. He is also waiting for a decision from President Joko Widodo.

On the other hand, the KPK Council is not worried that Firli Bahuri's resignation from the KPK will be approved by President Joko Widodo. This is because the KPK Council has determined the ethical punishment that will be imposed on Firli even though it has not been announced to the public.

Firli is suspected of having committed three ethical violations as chairman of the KPK so that he was reported to the KPK Council. The violation was a meeting with former Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL), the hiding of a number of data in filling out reports on the assets of state administrators (LHKPN), and the rental of houses in Kertanegara, South Jakarta.