Febrie's Pre-trial: Police Say Criminal Procedure Code Does Not Require Examination of Suspect Candidate

The National Police’s Corruption Eradication Corps (Kortas Tipikor) has responded to the pre-trial motion filed by former Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) Febrie Adriansyah regarding his suspect designation. Kortas Tipikor stated that Article 90 of the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) stipulates that a person may be named a suspect if at least two pieces of evidence have been fulfilled.

“Thus, the norm of Article 90 paragraph 1 of the KUHAP has firmly determined the legal parameter for suspect designation, namely the existence of an allegation of a person’s involvement in a criminal act based on at least two valid pieces of evidence,” said a Kortas Tipikor representative at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday (19/8/2026).

The following is the content of Article 90 paragraph 1 of the KUHAP: Suspect designation is carried out by investigators against a person suspected of committing a criminal act based on a minimum of 2 (two) pieces of evidence.

Kortas Tipikor stated that Article 90 of the KUHAP does not require the examination of a person as a suspect candidate. Kortas Tipikor considered it inappropriate for Febrie to use the reason that there was no examination of him as a suspect candidate.

“The provision does not require the summoning and examination of a person first in the capacity of a suspect candidate as a valid condition for suspect designation. In fact, the KUHAP does not place ‘suspect candidate’ as a separate legal status that must first be given to a person before the person concerned can be designated as a suspect,” he said.

The respondent stated that Febrie’s designation as a suspect was carried out after a series of investigation and inquiry actions. These included examination of witnesses, experts, collection of evidence, examination of letters and documents, searches, seizures, tracing of transactions and fund flows, as well as other lawful investigative actions.

“Based on the entirety of the investigation results, the respondents have obtained at least two valid pieces of evidence that are mutually consistent and have relevance to the alleged criminal acts attributed to the petitioner,” he said.

Kortas Tipikor also responded to Febrie’s pre-trial argument regarding the alleged illegality of the search and seizure actions. Kortas considered the argument put forward by Febrie to be incorrect.

“That the criminal acts that are the object of the investigation in the a quo case are alleged corruption and money laundering offences, each regulated in special laws, namely the Corruption Eradication Law and the Law on Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering,” said the Kortas Tipikor representative.

“Thus, the a quo case falls into the category of special criminal acts as referred to in the exception to Article 8 paragraph 5 of the Attorney General’s Law based on Constitutional Court Decision Number 15/PUU-XXIII/2025,” he continued.

Kortas Tipikor stated that sufficient preliminary evidence had been found before the search of Febrie. Kortas Tipikor requested that the argument in the petition regarding the absence of the Attorney General’s permit, which allegedly rendered the search invalid, be rejected.

“That thus, the petitioner’s argument stating that the absence of the Attorney General’s permit automatically causes the search and/or investigative actions against the petitioner to be invalid is an argument that contradicts positive law after Constitutional Court Decision Number 15/PUU-XXIII/2025. Therefore, the argument deserves to be rejected or at least declared legally unfounded,” he said.

Febrie had previously been named a suspect in a number of cases. The case ensnaring Febrie was initially handled by the National Police. In its development, the Police handed over the handling of Febrie’s case to the Attorney General’s Office.

Initially, Febrie was named a suspect for alleged corruption and money laundering related to the ASABRI case. He was named a suspect together with a businessman named Don Ritto.

In addition, Febrie became a suspect in a case of alleged money laundering related to the discovery of evidence in the form of 74 kg of gold and hundreds of billions of rupiah in cash. The Attorney General’s Office also named another suspect, namely Nurman Herin, in this case.

Furthermore, there is another investigation still being processed related to Febrie. The investigation concerns alleged corruption at PT Krakatau Steel and coal procurement for a coal-fired power plant that resulted in a blackout.

Febrie did not accept this and filed a pre-trial motion. He requested that the suspect designation and the seizures carried out in the investigation of his case be declared invalid.