Setara Institute Urges President Prabowo to Act Against TNI Members Obstructing Justice

The Chair of the Setara Institute National Board, Hendardi, has urged President Prabowo Subianto to intervene following actions by several members of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) who allegedly obstructed a corruption investigation conducted by the Jakarta Metropolitan Police on 8 July 2026. Hendardi stated that the obstruction of an investigation by the military is a very serious matter.

According to Hendardi, if the action was indeed taken to protect officials within the Attorney General’s Office, the public will perceive an intervention in the law enforcement process. He said the public would view the state’s defence institution as being used to shield the interests of corruptors. “Such an act constitutes a betrayal of the state in terms of strengthening state sovereignty, respect for civil supremacy, and the national anti-corruption agenda,” Hendardi said in a written statement on Thursday, 9 July 2026.

Hendardi reminded that based on laws and regulations, no TNI member has the authority to obstruct an investigation or search conducted by law enforcement officers under applicable legal provisions. The involvement of military personnel in protecting parties suspected of committing corruption is a dangerous form of abuse of power. He noted that corruption is an extraordinary crime that erodes the foundations of the state. “When armed forces are instead used to secure the interests of corruptors, the threat faced is no longer merely corruption, but collusion between power, impunity, and the coercive force of the state,” he said.

Hendardi also asserted that this incident proves that the expansion of military involvement in civilian spaces is misguided and poses serious risks to the rule of law. In recent years, the TNI has been increasingly deployed in various civilian affairs, ranging from food security and education to maintaining public order and other governmental functions outside the mandate of national defence. Rather than strengthening governance, this expansion of roles has created space for abuse of authority, jurisdictional conflicts, and the use of military force to protect interests unrelated to defence duties.

Hendardi stated that the alleged obstruction of this corruption investigation is clear evidence of the blurring boundaries between defence functions and civil law enforcement, leading to the misuse of military institutions to intervene in legal processes. He urged the government and the House of Representatives to immediately evaluate various policies that open space for TNI involvement in civilian affairs and to consistently return the TNI to its constitutional mandate as a state defence instrument under the principle of civil supremacy. “Therefore, the President must take responsibility and immediately intervene by ordering the TNI Commander to thoroughly investigate the alleged involvement of his members, disclose the results of the examination to the public, and ensure that any member proven to have obstructed the legal process is subject to firm criminal and disciplinary sanctions,” he said.

Hendardi also urged the President to prohibit the use of TNI members to hinder law enforcement regarding alleged corruption involving officials from the Attorney General’s Office. Simultaneously, Hendardi encouraged the Police not to retreat. Every act of obstruction of justice, regardless of the perpetrator, must be processed according to the law so that it does not set a precedent that armed forces can be used to intervene in corruption investigations.

Dozens of heavily armed TNI members arrived at the Jakarta Metropolitan Police Headquarters in the early hours of Thursday, 9 July 2026. The incident occurred after a joint investigative team searched a café and a luxury house related to three different cases on Wednesday, 8 July 2026. Several eyewitnesses reported seeing dozens of TNI members inside the Jakarta Metropolitan Police complex at around 3.40 a.m. Based on monitoring at 9.00 a.m., several official TNI vehicles with green and red plates were seen moving back and forth in front of the Special Criminal Investigation Directorate building.

The Head of the TNI Information Centre, Brigadier General Muhammad Nas, denied any TNI intervention in the legal process underway at the Jakarta Metropolitan Police. “The TNI respects the legal process and does not intervene in the applicable mechanisms,” Nas said when contacted on Thursday, 9 July 2026. Information obtained and confirmed by two senior Police officials indicated that the senior TNI officers who came to the Jakarta Metropolitan Police in the early hours of Thursday included Brigadier General Wahyo Yuniartoto from the TNI Strategic Intelligence Agency, Brigadier General Anggiat Napitupulu from the PKH Task Force, a colonel from the class of 2001, 10 uniformed and armed TNI personnel, and five plainclothes personnel from the Attorney General’s Office. Nas denied the presence of TNI personnel at the Jakarta Metropolitan Police in the early hours of Thursday. “That is not true,” Nas said.

A day earlier, on Wednesday, 8 July 2026, a joint team from the Police Corruption Eradication Corps and the Special Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police searched 12 locations in connection with investigations into corruption, money laundering, and bribery. The searches were related to alleged bribery at PT Asabri, corruption in coal supply that caused a blackout in Sumatra, and a case involving PT Krakatau Steel. “Several locations were searched simultaneously,” said the Head of Public Relations of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police, Senior Commissioner Budi Hermanto, on Wednesday, 8 July 2026. Investigators also searched the de’Clan Signature Café on Jalan Cilandak Tengah, Cipete, South Jakarta, on Wednesday, 8 July 2026. The Head of the Police Corruption Eradication Corps, Inspector General Totok Suharyanto, said the search was related to the three cases. “We continue to carry out law enforcement efforts, currently with a joint investigation scheme in handling [the cases],” he said.