Roy Suryo Alleges Police Were Forced to Announce P21 Status in Jokowi Diploma Case

A suspect in the case involving accusations of a fake diploma for Indonesia’s 7th President, Joko Widodo, Roy Suryo, has alleged that the Jakarta Metropolitan Police were forced to announce the complete status of his case file, known as P21. Speaking on a television programme on Wednesday evening, Suryo questioned the announcement, suggesting that information from informal sources indicated the file had been complete since last year. He claimed that the P21 status was announced under duress. Suryo stated that the information emerged when the Director of General Criminal Investigation at the Jakarta Metropolitan Police held a press conference regarding a different matter. According to him, during that conference, questions arose from journalists about the progress of the Jokowi diploma case. He noted that the director’s response lasted only 57 seconds and contained no explicit mention of a P21 status or a statement that the file was declared complete. Suryo argued that the phrasing only mentioned ongoing coordination and a remark that there was no need for further action as requirements had been met. He questioned whether the official correspondence that typically serves as the basis between police investigators and public prosecutors for a P21 declaration actually exists. Suryo noted that if the police possessed such a letter from the prosecutor’s office, they would have surely announced its issuance date and the schedule for the second stage of the handover. As of eight days after the director’s announcement, he said, there was still no plan for the second stage of transfer. The Jakarta Metropolitan Police had previously stated that the case files for both Roy Suryo and another suspect had been declared complete by the DKI Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office. The police director confirmed that the prosecutor declared the submitted files required no further fulfilment of previously noted deficiencies and that a second-stage handover to the prosecution would occur soon, though an exact date could not yet be confirmed. After the second-stage handover, prosecutors are set to prepare the indictment before the case proceeds to trial.