Ferdy arriving at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department in Jakarta for questioning as a witness in the alleged fatal shooting at his residence. - The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): The National Police's Criminal Investigation Department on Thursday questioned inactive Insp-Gen Ferdy Sambo as a witness in the alleged fatal shootout between two officers on duty at his official residence in South Jakarta last month.
Ferdy has been suspended as the head of the internal affairs division amid ongoing investigations into the incident, which led to the death of Brig Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, who had been on duty as his aide de camp at the time.
“I am here responding to the Bareskrim’s summons. This is my fourth questioning [session]. I have provided answers to the South Jakarta Police, the Jakarta [Metropolitan] Police,” Ferdy told reporters as he arrived at the Bareskrim on Thursday at 9.56am for his scheduled questioning at 10am.
“I would like to apologise to the institution [National Police] for what happened at my official residence in Duren Tiga,” he said.
“I convey my condolences over the death of Brig Yosua. I hope the family is given strength. But it is separate from what Yosua did to my wife and my family,” Ferdy added.
In the latest development in the police investigation into the alleged shooting, the National Police announced on Wednesday evening that Second Agent (Bharada) Richard Eliezer, commonly referred to as “Bharada E”, had been named as a murder suspect and an accomplice in the case.
A murder conviction carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The two officers had been on duty as Ferdy’s aides de camp, and had returned to the residence hours before the incident while accompanying the family home from a trip to Magelang, Central Java.
According to the police’s initial account, the incident unfolded when Yosua attempted to assault Ferdy's wife Putri Candrawathi in her bedroom.
Richard confronted Yosua after hearing Putri scream, but the latter allegedly drew his firearm and fired at Richard. Richard returned fire and killed Yosua at around 5pm on July 8.
Police initially maintained that Richard had “acted in self-defence”, until the successive discovery of discrepancies between information provided by Yosua’s family and the police's official account raised suspicions of a cover-up.
Some of the points at issue include the police’s claim that the CCTV surveillance cameras at the residence were broken or not operating at the time of the incident, an unclear account of Ferdy’s whereabouts when the alleged shooting occurred and the various injuries Yosua’s family said they had found on his body but were not described in police reports.
This prompted even President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to call for “due process” in investigating the incident, while the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has launched an independent probe into the incident.
Following public calls for transparency, the National Police suspended Ferdy, Internal Security Bureau chief Brig-Gen Hendra Kurniawan and South Jakarta Police chief Sr Comr Budhi Herdi Susianto.
