•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

A police investigation document has caused confusion over the legal status of General Elections Commission chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshari and prompted two law enforcement agencies to issue conflicting statements as to whether he is a suspect in a criminal case.

Deputy Attorney General Darmono said on Monday that his office received a Police Investigation Letter, or SPDP, naming Hafiz as a suspect on Aug. 15. 

“But the actual case is not clear yet. We haven’t received any report from the deputy attorney general on general crimes,” Darmono said. “But the charges are 263 and 266 of the Criminal Code. That’s all the information I can provide.”

The articles he was referring to deal with document forgery, and carry a combined maximum sentence of six years in prison.

A source close to the case said that Hafiz has been charged for his role in an election dispute over a seat on the Maluku Representatives Council in 2009. “The case is over a forged document in the Halmahera local election in 2009,” the source said.

But Hafiz’s status as a suspect in that case is being denied by the National Police.

“We haven’t declared [Hafiz] as a suspect,” National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Sutarman said.

“The SPDP was sent to the AGO based on a complaint filed by [officer] Abdul Sukur Mandar against the KPU [General Elections Commission] chairman because the KPU decision did not correspond with the election results in West Halmahera.”

“Again, investigators have not declared any suspect. All the witnesses have not even been questioned.”

According to the Code of Criminal Procedures, an SPDP is only supplied by the police to the AGO notifying that an investigation has already taken place against a certain suspect.