Police Question Ex-KPK Commissioner Bambang Widjojanto
[Updated at 5:40 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, 2015, to add statement from police spokesman, additional details]
Jakarta. Police on Thursday questioned — and planned to arrest if necessary — the non-active deputy of the Corruption Eradication Commission, Bambang Widjojanto, over his alleged role in persuading witnesses to commit perjury years ago.
"He has skipped our summons twice so we consider him as being uncooperative," a source within the police's detective unit told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.
A spokesman for the National Police' detective unit, Victor Edison Simanjuntak, said in the afternoon that Bambang had been detained after being questioned since Thursday morning.
"He will be held in the Mobile Brigade [Brimob] detention center in Kelapa Dua [in Depok, south of Jakarta]," Victor said, as quoted by Kompas.com.
By the end of the afternoon, however, Victor said the questioning session was over and that Bambang was not being held. He added that police did initially intend to arrest Bambang if he would not cooperate, but he did.
The spokesman denied that police were trying to coerce Bambang into cooperating by threatening him with arrest and by deploying a significant force outside the Brimob headquarters during the questioning session.
"There was no threat, Bambang is an important figure who does not answer to threats," Victor said. "We were just waiting for the result of the investigation."
An arrest warrant for Bambang was circulated online during the course of the day, but the Globe could not verify its authenticity.
Bambang was named a suspect by the police in January in a years-old perjury case. The suspended KPK commissioner is accused of persuading witnesses to provide false testimony during his time working as a defense lawyer in a local election dispute in 2010.
Victor also said on Thursday that eight witnesses in Bambang's perjury case had filed a report with the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) because they felt intimidated by someone who demanded they revoke their testimonies against Bambang.
Police zeroed in on Bambang just one day after the police quietly inaugurated Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as their deputy chief.
During his active duty, Bambang and non-active KPK chairman Abraham Samad named Budi a corruption suspect, forcing President Joko Widodo to drop Budi's nomination as the National Police chief.
The National Police's chief detective, Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, who was a close aide of Budi Gunawan, has said the police would not refrain from pursuing criminal charges against officials of the respected anti-graft body.
Victor said Bambang's case file would now be sent to the Attorney General's Office.
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