Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto (centre) arriving for an interrogation on March 5 at the Corruption Eradication Commission building in Jakarta. - Antara
JAKARTA: The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is ready to prosecute Hasto Kristiyanto for bribery and obstruction of justice this week, potentially derailing the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician’s attempt to render the investigation void through pretrial motions.
KPK spokesperson Tessa Mahardika told The Jakarta Post on Sunday (March 9) that its prosecutors submitted the case dossier to the Jakarta Corruption Court on Friday of last week, just one day after KPK investigators completed their probe into Hasto, the PDI-P secretary-general.
“The KPK handed over the case dossier to the court after the investigation process was completed. There was not any political motive [behind the timing],” Tessa said.
The KPK has been moving fast in its investigation into Hasto and detained him on Feb 20, some two months after naming him a suspect in December of last year for allegedly helping fellow politician Harun Masiku bribe a then-General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner in 2019 for a vacant seat in the House of Representatives and for helping Harun elude authorities since 2020.
With Hasto’s case dossier now already with the Jakarta Corruption Court, the court database shows that his first trial is scheduled for March 14.
PDI-P executive in charge of legal affairs, Ronny Talapessy, who is also a member of Hasto’s legal team, said that he and other lawyers are ready to face the trial.
“We are ready to disprove the corruption accusations levelled against Hasto,” Ronny said on Sunday.
“We think that [the accusations] have been fabricated and are politically charged.”
Ronny went on to allege that the KPK has deliberately rushed the investigation so that the agency could bring Hasto to the corruption court before another court decides on two pretrial motions Hasto filed last month that challenge investigators for naming him a suspect without due process.
A pretrial motion is automatically declared void if no ruling has been made by the time the criminal case is brought to court, as regulated by the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP).
A pretrial hearing adopts a speedy trial mechanism, under which a pretrial judge has seven days to hear a pretrial motion and issue a ruling from the first hearing, which determines whether all parties are ready to present their arguments.
Read also: Court postpones Hasto’s pretrial hearings following KPK request The first hearings for Hasto’s two pretrial motions were supposed to be held on March 3.
But the South Jakarta District Court decided that same day to postpone the hearings to March 10 and March 14 because the KPK requested more time to prepare its arguments.
“All this confirmed our suspicion that the KPK is just trying to chase a deadline,” Ronny said.
When asked by the Post on Sunday about whether the pretrial hearings would still continue, South Jakarta District Court spokesperson Djuyamto neither confirmed nor denied it, but said that it would be the judges’ “jurisdiction” to decide whether the motions would be dropped.
Meanwhile, KPK spokesperson Tessa, in response to the PDI-P’s allegation, said that the antigraft body would not be dragged into an opinion war and that it would be up to the public to decide if the KPK had rushed the investigation.
“The discourse now is not only a matter of whether or not [we have been too] quick in handing over the case to the court, but also about whether or not the case has fulfilled all the requirements to be handed over in the first place. We can all see for ourselves when the trial starts,” Tessa added.
The PDI-P has repeatedly described the KPK investigation into Hasto as highly politicized, suspecting that former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, which the PDI-P dismissed in December, had a hand in the investigation into Hasto, an accusation Jokowi has denied.
Political analysts meanwhile generally predict that Hasto’s case might prevent the party from becoming an all-out opposition to the administration of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son.
Last month, Hasto lost a different pretrial motion he filed against the KPK, with the court dismissing his case for a lack of evidence and vague arguments. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
