Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Joko Widodo is urged to step in and set up an independent team to investigate the story by Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) about the testimony of drug big shot Freddy Budiman.
Investigation for the substance of the information in the Haris' story should be carried out thoroughly, Miko Ginting, a researcher from the Center of Indonesian Policy and Law Study (PSHK) said.
"Police could not act alone in the investigations. There are too many believed implicated in the case as indicated in the testimony," Miko said here on Friday.
Police already acknowledged difficulty in handling the case as the key witness Freddy Budiman is no longer available for confirmation.
Freddy was already dead. He was among the four drug convicts executed in Nusakambangan last week.
Haris wrote an article "Rotten Story from a Bandit: Testimony from a Meeting with Freddy Budiman at Nusa Kambangan Prison (2014)", just after the execution.
In his testimony in 2014 as written by Haris, Freddy claimed to have bribed law enforcement officials with hundreds of billions of rupiah to get protection for his illicit trade.
Miko said President Jokowi needs to step in by setting an investigation team with a presidential decree.
The team should be made up of credible persons that would work independently, he said.
He said the forming of the team is also in step with the president's statement himself that the country is in a drug crisis.
He said Haris , who has been reported to the Police Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) by the state Police, the military and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) on charge of libel, had acted for the public interest and could not be charged with crime.
Hendardi, chairman of non governmental organization Setara Institute said Freddy's testimony should serve as a momentum for evaluation and internal reform by police .
Hendardi said what Haris has only made public what Freddy had said in his testimony.
He said he believed Haris and police as well as the public want to have a clean and credible law enforcement agency. (WDY)
