Prosecutor's Office Deemed Unprofessional After Retracting Febrie's Status, Calls for Case Transfer to KPK
The Attorney General’s Office has been accused of unprofessional conduct after the Head of the Legal Information Centre, Anang Supriatna, retracted his statement regarding the status of Febrie Adriansyah, a former Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes, in three corruption and money laundering cases. The initial statement, made during a press conference on Wednesday, 15 July, indicated a change in Febrie’s status based on three new investigation warrants. However, on the same day, a written statement was issued clarifying that Febrie remains a suspect as determined by investigators from the Corruption Eradication Directorate of the Metro Jaya Regional Police.
Bhatara Ibnu Reza, Executive Director of Democratic Judicial Reform, stated that the flip-flop demonstrates a lack of professionalism and indecisiveness within the Attorney General’s apparatus in uncovering a mega-corruption case involving a former high-ranking official of the institution. He added that the failure to promptly detain the suspect, coupled with the retraction of his legal status, creates a strong impression of selective justice in the handling of corruption cases by the Indonesian Attorney General’s Office.
“We assess that this situation appears inseparable from the lack of firmness of the Attorney General, who should play the primary role as the highest public prosecutor leading the entire criminal prosecution process,” Bhatara said in a written statement on Thursday, 16 July 2026. He noted that the incident signals weak supervision by the leadership of the Attorney General’s Office in overseeing the case following its transfer from the Indonesian National Police. Furthermore, the weak internal oversight, currently led by Rudi Margono as the Junior Attorney General for Supervision, should have demonstrated a quality of inherent supervision to ensure the legal process runs transparently and accountably, given the immense public attention on the case. Bhatara also pointed to the indecisiveness of the Indonesian Attorney’s Commission, which has not seriously performed its function as an external supervisor of the Adhyaksa Corps.