JAKARTA The Attorney General's Office (AGO) revealed the role of three suspects in the obstruction of investigation or obstruction of justice case. They are advocate Marcella Santoso (MS), lecturer and advocate Junaedi Saabih (JS), and Director of Public Relations of JAKTV Tian Bahtiar (TB).
Director of Investigation of the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) Abdul Qohar explained that this conspiracy began when MS and JS asked TB to create and spread a negative narrative that cornered the Prosecutor's Office. The narrative relates to three major corruption cases:
- Tin commodity trading system in the 2015 PT Timah Tbk IUP region '2022, - sugar importation with the suspect Tom Lembong, - And the provision of export facilities for crude palm oil (CPO).
"Their goal is clear, namely to form public opinion as if the investigation carried out by the AGO is invalid, so that it can interfere with the legal process or even release the suspects," said Qohar at the Attorney General's Office Building, Tuesday morning, April 22.
In his role, JS created a narrative and methodology of calculating state losses that contradicted the AGO's version. TB then spread the narrative through various channels, including social media, online media, and JAKTV broadcasts.
It didn't stop there, MS and JS also financed seminars, podcasts, talk shows, and demonstrations to spread opinions that undermined the integrity of the investigation. The activity was again covered by TB and broadcast on the JAKTV platform, including TikTok and YouTube accounts.
"All of this is done to suppress and disturb investigators, with the hope that these cases can be released or at least investigators lose focus," explained Qohar.
In exchange for his role, TB received a fee of Rp478.5 million which went straight into his personal account. Qohar emphasized that there was no official contract between JAKTV and the suspects, so TB's actions were suspected of being abuse of authority as the news director.
For their actions, the three were charged with Article 21 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption, which was amended by Law Number 20 of 2001, in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) of the 1st Criminal Code.
Suspects JS and TB are now being held at the Salemba Rutan, the Attorney General's Office for the next 20 days. Meanwhile, MS was not detained because he had already been detained in the alleged bribery case in the CPO export case.
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