Zaky Pawas, Jakarta – Police investigating the July assault of an anticorruption researcher have ruled out personal motives, lending credence to allegations that he was targeted as a result of his work.

Tama Satrya Langkun, a researcher with Indonesia Corruption Watch, was ambushed by four unknown assailants on July 8, leaving him hospitalized with serious injuries.

ICW said Tama was the key researcher behind its report to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force that alleged several National Police generals held suspiciously large bank accounts.

The attack came shortly after the publication of the report in Tempo magazine. Three days before the attack, the Tempo office was firebombed, again by unknown perpetrators.

While no one has been arrested in either case, on Friday police announced that Tama was targeted by "a certain group's henchmen," but declined to elaborate.

Nurcholis, a director of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH), which is representing Tama, said this conclusion was positive news.

"We've made good progress in this case today," he said on Friday at Jakarta Police headquarters. "We and the police are in agreement that Tama was singled out, and the perpetrators were henchmen of parties who did not like him."

Nurcholis said the police had not revealed any definite motive for the attack. "They're still investigating that," he said. He also said police were analyzing calls made to Tama's cellphone in the days leading up to the attack. The researcher had complained of receiving anonymous threats during this time.

Tama said he was relieved by the conclusion reached by the police, as it proved they were still working on his case.

"It shows they no longer believe the attack was motivated by some personal problem linked to gambling debts or women or whatnot," he said. "All those angles have been ruled out."

He said while the police had not explicitly linked the assault to the ICW report, "the point is, they no longer believe it was a personal matter."

Tama said any failure by the police to resolve the case would be unacceptable. "It will be a burden on them if they can't resolve it," he said.

However, Haris Azhar, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said the police were treating the case simply as an opportunity to embellish their human rights credentials.

"[National Police Chief] Timur Pradopo, during his selection test, only promised to resolve Tama's case because of the public pressure at the time," he said.

"He said the case was salient because it was interesting, not because it was urgent, like a corruption case. I suspect he did so because of public pressure. "If that's the case, then I fear it was just lip service, and not really a promise to resolve the investigation," Haris added.

"If he was serious about it, he would have reorganized the investigation, but so far, I don't believe Timur has ever taken this case seriously."