Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – While failing to prove any collusion between police officers and executed drug kingpin Freddy Budiman, an independent team said on Thursday that it had instead found officers' involvement with another drug syndicate.
Ending one month of investigations, the fact-finding team comprising police members and experts, announced that it had not found evidence of police personnel facilitating Freddy's business, as alleged earlier by human rights activist Haris Azhar.
However, the investigation revealed transfers of more than Rp 2.5 billion (US$190,000) to certain police personnel.
Team member Effendi Ghazali said Rp 668 million had been transferred by drug convict Akiong to a middle-ranking officer identified by his initial KPS. Five separate transfers of Rp 25 million, Rp 50 million, Rp 77 million, Rp 700 million and more than Rp 1 billion to unidentified officers were also discovered. The police's Internal Affairs Division is further examining the findings.
"Indeed we did not find any transfer of money from the late Freddy Budiman to certain officials in the National Police, as he had told Haris Azhar," Effendi told a press conference on Thursday. "But don't focus on that specific case only. Our investigation has found the transfer of money [related with Akiong]".
Effendi explained that the failure to substantiate Freddy's claims was due to technical challenges, such as the limited time given to the team to carry out the investigation. He cited the long delay between the moment Freddy testified to Haris in 2014 and the time when Haris eventually posted the testimony on social media last July as one of the challenges faced by his team.
The communications expert said corruption was hampering the government's efforts to eradicate drugs in the country.
As a further indication of difficulties faced by the government in its war on drugs, Effendi presented findings on the practice of frequently changing command structures in the narcotics business. The team, he said, had found that a drug convict named Tedja had been falsely identified as someone named Rudi, who was allegedly Freddy's partner in marketing 1.4 million ecstasy pills.
Effendi said Tedja was currently on death row as he failed to pay a judge, whose identity is yet to be revealed, during his trial.
Besides Effendi, the investigation team engaged two other members from outside the police corps, including National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Poengky Indarti, who was formerly the director of Jakarta-based human rights monitor Imparsial. The rest of the 16 team members are police officers.
The team was set up by National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian last month, not long after Haris was berated by the National Police, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) for making public testimony in which Freddy allegedly revealed support from law enforcement officials for his drugs business.
The three institutions then quickly reported the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) to the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) over defamation.
Haris' legal status still hangs in the balance, because police have yet to decide whether or not to proceed with the process following the conclusion of the investigation team.
National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said the police would comply with the team's recommendation to set up a working team to follow up the investigation team's findings.
Contacted separately, Haris said he appreciated the work of the police's team and expected further action to cleanse the institution from corrupt practices that backed drug businesses.
"The findings can be a starting point for the police to raise public awareness on the war against drugs. If the government seriously considers drugs an extraordinary crime, then it must show serious action to prove its commitment," he said.