Bagus BT Saragih – The nation's human rights body says the police are to blame for its failure to complete an examination of the murder case that convicted former antigraft czar Antasari Azhar, who is now making his last bid to overturn his 18-year sentence.
The National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said that the police had not provided them with important documents needed to examine Antasari's case, which is believed to be plagued with irregularities.
The commission began to look into the case in February and pledged to complete its work within two months. It had planned to present its findings before the court that is currently hearing Antasari's case review request.
"A number of difficulties, such as the police document issues, have made us fail to finish the investigation soon.
We filed an official request to the National Police weeks ago to obtain an official copy of documents such as interrogation transcripts and lists of seized evidence. But the police have yet to fulfill our request," Komnas HAM commissioner Johny Nelson Simanjuntak told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
"We aim to finish our investigation next month and we will present the results at Antasari's case review hearing soon after," he added.
National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said he was not aware for Komnas HAM's request of the Antasari investigation documents.
Antasari, formerly the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman, is serving an 18-year sentence for masterminding the murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen.
He is now attempting to overturn the ruling through a case review, which is the only way in Indonesia's legal system for a convict to challenge his or her conviction. The first hearing of the case review took place last week at the South Jakarta District Court.
During the hearing, a few experts presented testimonies that have led to speculation that Antasari was framed in the case.
A ballistics expert, Widodo Hardjo Prawito, for example, said that two different guns were used to shoot Nasrudin, according to his examination of documents concerning the victim's dead body, while the police insisted that the businessman was shot twice with the same firearm.
Widodo's testimonies have corroborated suspicions that Antasari is innocent and that the murder case was engineered to expel him from the country's top antigraft body.
Komnas HAM's move to examine Antasari's case was partly prompted by allegations from former tax official and graft convict Gayus Tambunan. Gayus told the press shortly after his trial hearing in January that prosecutor Cirus Sinaga, who is now a graft defendant, was responsible for building the case against both Antasari and himself.