Legal Team Condemns Roy Suryo's Arrest: 'This Serves Jokowi's Interests'
The legal team has condemned the arrest of Roy Suryo and Tifauzia Tyassuma, also known as Dr Tifa, who are suspects in a case involving allegations of a forged diploma belonging to Indonesia’s seventh President, Jokowi. The arrests were carried out by officers from the Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Police (Polda Metro Jaya).
Roy Suryo’s lawyer, Ahmad Khozinudin, confirmed the arrests on Friday morning. In a press release, the legal team questioned the decision by Polda Metro Jaya to use forced measures, asserting that their clients had always been cooperative with police summons and had consistently fulfilled their reporting obligations.
“We regret the actions of the investigators at Polda Metro Jaya in using forced measures through the arrest of our clients, despite the fact that our clients have been cooperative in responding to investigators and have always complied with mandatory reporting requirements,” stated the legal team.
They further argued that if the case had reached the second stage—meaning the investigation file was complete—the authorities should have proceeded via official summons rather than through repressive arrest tactics.
Based on this, Roy’s legal counsel suspects that the arrests demonstrate a lack of adherence to legal norms and ethics, suggesting that the police are facilitating political intervention in the judicial process. “We believe this arrest confirms that the law is not operating according to norms and ethics, but is instead serving the political interests of Jokowi,” the team stated.
They added that the arrest confirms the presence of political forces intervening in the law, leading to the abandonment of civil law enforcement methods in favour of repressive and intimidating tactics.
Khozinudin reported that Roy Suryo was arrested at approximately 7:00 am on Friday morning, with Dr Tifa being arrested at the same time. As of the time of publication, there has been no official statement from the police regarding the arrests.
Polda Metro Jaya had previously stated that the investigation files for Roy Suryo and Dr Tifa regarding the allegations against Joko Widodo had been declared complete (P21) by the Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office. On Tuesday, 2 June, the Director of Criminal Investigation at Polda Metro Jaya, Kombes Iman Imanuddin, confirmed that the prosecutors had indicated no further deficiencies remained in the files.
At that time, Iman indicated that the police would soon proceed to the second stage, which involves handing over evidence and suspects to the prosecutor’s office for trial. However, he could not confirm the exact timing for this handover.
Prior to this, Roy Suryo had expressed suspicion that the announcement of the completed investigation status was being made under pressure by the police. He questioned the validity of the P21 status, noting that while the police claimed the files were complete, there had been no official movement towards the second stage of the legal process despite the time elapsed since the announcement.