Nur Janti, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Stefanus Roy Rening, a lawyer of suspended Papua governor Lukas Enembe, as suspect of obstruction of justice and is detaining him for 20 days.
After questioning Stefanus for six hours on Tuesday, KPK said they had found enough evidence of Stefanus creating scenarios to hamper the KPK investigation of a graft case involving Lukas by influencing witnesses to make false testimony, not to answer the antigraft body's summons and to prevent witnesses from handing over the alleged graft money to investigators.
KPK investigators announced Stefanus would be detained at the Naval Military Police Command Headquarters (Puspomal) in North Jakarta until May 28.
"According to the criminal procedure law, the witness' attendance is a legal obligation," KPK deputy chairman Nurul Ghufron said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.id.
Prior to naming Stefanus as a suspect, the antigraft body had slapped a travel ban on him and three other witnesses of Lukas' graft case, namely Gerius One Yoman, Fredrik Banne and Sukman.
The antigraft body keeps digging deeper to develop Lukas' graft case after naming Lukas a money laundering suspect on April 12 and a graft suspect in September.
Lukas allegedly accepted bribes amounting to Rp 1 billion (US$67,889) from Rijatono Lakka, director of a contractor company in Papua, for approving the latter's tender for government infrastructure projects. Rijatono was named a corruption suspect in January.
Before being detained at the KPK Detention Center, Lukas repeatedly avoided the KPK summons, citing health concerns, with Lukas' legal team pushing for medical treatment outside the country. The KPK rejected the proposal and slapped a travel ban on Lukas in September. (dre)