Detective chief confirms Novel's arrest

JAKARTA. National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso confirmed on Friday that Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan had been arrested just after midnight at his residence in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

"Yes, he was arrested at midnight because he failed to fulfill three interrogation summons," Budi told reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Budi explained that the arrest was legitimate and that Novel had been presented with an arrest warrant.

He added that investigators had trouble completing Novel's case dossier as they still needed clarification on a few things from the suspect.

The police reopened an investigation into Novel, who was implicated in an assault case in 2004 when he was the Bengkulu Police’s chief of detectives, after the antigraft body named Police Education Institute director (Lemdikpol) Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, now the deputy police chief, a suspect in a bribery case.

Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had requested in 2012 that Novel’s case be postponed because of a heated conflict between the police and the KPK that arose when the antigraft body named then chief of the National Police Traffic Police Corps (Korlantas), Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, a graft suspect. (Fedina S. Sundaryani)