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In the ongoing battle between the country’s antigraft agency and the police, the Corruption Eradication Commission is now preparing to launch a three-pronged approach to fight for its two deputy chairmen who have been declared as suspects for abuse of power.

Abdullah Hehamahua, an advisor to the commission, known as the KPK, said after meeting the commission’s lawyer on Tuesday that the KPK will bring the dispute to the Constitutional Court as well as report the police involved to the National Police Commission.

The commission will also request for pre-court, a court case provided for people who claim that the police have carried out procedures incorrectly.

KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah have been named as suspects by police for acting beyond their authority. 

Police initially suspected that members of the commission had accepted bribes from businessman Anggoro Widjaja in return for dropping him as a suspect in graft case. However, after failing up to turn up evidence of bribery, police pursued abuse of power charges against the two KPK deputies for issuing travel bans on Anggoro and fellow corruption suspect Djoko Tjandra. 

Abdullah said that police had followed incorrect procedure.

"In a case related to the KPK, police should refer to the KPK Law," he said. "This is for specialist cases. If there are any other laws contradicting with the KPK law, in a case of corruption they should refer to the KPK Law."

Bambang Widjojanto, a KPK lawyer, said on Tuesday that a team of lawyers from the commission will seek proof as to whether there is conflict of interest in the case.
 
“If there is conflict of interest involved on the process, then the whole legal process should be annulled,” Bambang said.

Bambang said that the commission has also sent a letter to the president.

“One of the points in the letter is for the president to review the investigation process by the National Police and stop the process,” he said.

The commission will also report abuse of police power to the National Police Commission.

“We will see their reaction and what they can do regarding this case,” Bambang said. “We will also consider other steps such as filing the case at the Constitutional Court.”

However, Constitutional Court Judge Mahfud MD said on Sunday that the KPK has no legal standing to file the case as its authority is not granted by the Constitution.

“I told [KPK] lawyers that in a case of police being wrong, they should file it to an administrative state court,” Mahfud said.

Mahfud said that a KPK request for a travel ban is not a crime.

“Police should be careful as their role is for criminal acts only,” he said.

Abdullah said that even if the KPK has no standing to file a case with the court, the substance of such a case is the most important thing.

"The Constitutional Court decided once that, despite the court stating that the applicants had no legal standing, the substance of the case was correct," he said.

"If that happens again in this case, that will be enough... at least for the public to know that the police are wrong."