Pretrial Hearing on Former Jampidsus Febrie Adriansyah's Suspect Status Held Today
A pretrial hearing concerning the legality of the legal process against former Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) Febrie Adriansyah was held this morning at the South Jakarta District Court. The Metro Jaya Regional Police, the National Police’s Corruption Crime Eradication Corps (Kortas Tipidkor), and the Attorney General’s Office were named as respondents in the proceedings.
Febrie’s legal team confirmed their attendance. His lawyer, Febri Diansyah, stated that several requests for review were submitted in this pretrial motion. The primary issue concerns the validity of Febrie’s designation as a corruption and money laundering suspect, as well as the search process. Febri said the pretrial hearing would examine whether the designation of his client as a suspect, which was carried out without any prior examination as a prospective suspect, could be justified.
“What we are testing in this pretrial is the procedure. Whether the suspect designation, the searches, and other coercive measures were carried out in accordance with applicable regulations or not,” Febri said.
Febri noted that before Febrie was named a suspect, he had never once been questioned as a witness in the case now ensnaring him. This, he argued, provides strong grounds to test whether the legal process can be justified. “Febrie Adriansyah’s decision to file a pretrial motion is part of respect for the legal process,” Febri said.
Febri added that his client has the right to question the legal process now binding him through the courts. “It is therefore incorrect if a pretrial motion is understood as a way to obscure the legal process. In the legal realm, a pretrial motion is a right granted by law and applies to every person without distinction of background or position,” Febri explained.
In this pretrial hearing, Febri also said he would ask the single judge to examine the construction of the case ensnaring Febrie as a suspect. Febrie was also named a suspect for money laundering. The problem, Febri said, is that the money laundering charge against his client was never accompanied by an explanation of the predicate offence. According to him, the absence of a predicate offence in a money laundering charge cannot be justified. This matter, he noted, has also been reinforced by a Constitutional Court ruling concerning Article 74 of the Money Laundering Law.
“In a money laundering case, the issue is not whether investigators must wait until the predicate offence case is decided in court. What needs to be examined is whether the predicate offence is already clear as the basis for the money laundering investigation. And that is what we will present and test in the hearing,” Febrie said.
He asked all parties to respect Febrie’s legal step of questioning before the pretrial judge the legal process now binding him. “We continue to respect the ongoing law enforcement process. And we submit the examination of whether the legal actions against Febrie Adriansyah are valid or not to the panel of judges,” Febri said.
Febrie Adriansyah remains in the Attorney General’s Office’s custody at the Corruption Eradication Commission’s Merah Putih Detention Centre in East Jakarta. He was named a suspect by a joint police investigation team from the Metro Jaya Regional Police’s Special Criminal Investigation Directorate and the National Police’s Kortas Tipidkor.
The suspect designation relates to a corruption investigation concerning the handling of corruption cases involving PLN coal-fired power plants, Asabri, and a subsidiary of Krakatau Steel. Police also named Febrie a suspect in connection with money laundering.
Before he was named a suspect, police conducted searches at numerous locations, including a private house in Sentul City, Bogor, West Java, that was occupied by another party. From the search, police found cash in various currency denominations totalling nearly half a trillion rupiah. Police also found a hoard of gold bars in a safe weighing a total of 74 kilograms.
However, the National Police did not continue the investigation into the case. The police chose to hand over the continuation of the case to the Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General’s Office then formed a special team of nine prosecutors to continue handling the case.
The Attorney General’s Office also issued four new investigation orders after receiving the suspect status and evidence in the case ensnaring Febrie. The four new investigation orders issued by the Attorney General’s Office refer to the investigation orders previously issued by the National Police to ensnare Febrie.