IndonesiaLeaks, Jakarta – On Thursday October 17 IndonesiaLeaks released excerpts from a CCTV video recording which is said to show Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators allegedly destroying evidence. The evidence destroyed was related to a bribery case involving a judicial review of the Law on Animal Husbandry and Livestock Healthcare.
The CCTV video recording, which lasts 1 hour, 48 minutes and 58 seconds, contains a recording by a security camera taken in the collaboration room on the 9th floor of the KPK Directorate of Investigation in Jakarta. When a KPK source was sought for confirmation, they confirmed that it was indeed a room in the KPK offices.
The video shows several investigators including Ardian Rahayudi, Rufriyanto Maulana Yusuf, Roland Ronaldy, Harun and two investigators from a separate case.
Ronaldy and Harun can be seen examining a red book, sitting and turning their backs to the CCTV and crouching under the table. There has been no confirmation yet from the KPK whether the people in the recording are KPK investigators.
The names of the individuals have already been confirmed by IndonesiaLeaks although they have refused to confirm or deny if they are investigators saying that the question should be directed to the KPK.
The red book contained records of the flow of money related to a case of bribes paid to former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Patrialis Akbar [who was jailed for seven years over the case] by meat importer Basuki Hariman and his secretary Ng Fenny. The book also contains detailed records of the flow of funds from Hariman to several state officials.
There are 68 transactions which are suspected to be bribes for individuals from several government institutions. This includes “Indonesian Police Chief Tito Karnavian” who according to the book received at least eight deposits totalling around 7.2 billion rupiah. When sought for confirmation, Karnavian refused to comment on the presence of his name in the book.
The damage to the red book recorded by the CCTV occurred on Friday April 7, 2017. Four days later on Tuesday April 11, KPK senior investigator Novel Baswedan had acid thrown in his face by unknown assailants resulting in him being blinded in one eye.
An IndonesiaLeaks interview with Baswedan also found that there was a meeting between Baswedan and Karnavian on Tuesday April 4 or a week before the attack. During the meeting Baswedan explained that there was no special joint unit at the KPK which was targeting Karnavian.
There has yet to be any confirmation by Karnavian or the national police headquarters on the meeting. IndonesiaLeaks has repeatedly tried to confirm the April 4 meeting with Karnavian.
A request for an interview to confirm the matter was sent on August 28, 2019 at 1.13 pm. There has been no response from the national police headquarters other than a signature of receipt from the general secretary.
Coinciding with the meeting a KPK investigator handling the judicial review bribery case had their bag snatched which contained materials related to their work.
The Indonesia Leaks video can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii2BEhxUFR8
Notes
In October 2018 IndonesiaLeaks released a report of a joint investigation which focused on the destruction of key evidence relating to the bribery case involving former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Patrialis Akbar and cattle importer Basuki Hariman, which was being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 2017. The IndonesiaLeaks investigation alleged that in April 2017, two police investigators on loan to the anti-graft agency from the National Police, Roland Ronaldy and Harun, tore nine pages from a red bank transaction record book.
The removed pages allegedly documented the flow of funds to dozens of public officials, including then Jakarta Metropolitan Police Chief Tito Karnavian (now National Police chief). An internal KPK investigation in 2017 found that the two police investigators were guilty of destroying evidence and violating the KPK Code of Ethics. Given that obstructing a corruption investigation is a criminal offence the KPK could have pursued charges against them. But the two investigators were simply returned to the National Police and the case vanished. Both are still on active duty and, in fact, received promotions soon after their return to the police institution.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “IndonesiaLeaks: Bukti Baru Buku Merah”.]
Source: https://kbr.id/nasional/10-2019/indonesialeaks__bukti_baru_buku_merah/100941.html
