Susno makes blunder by appearing in court

Former National Police top detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji has sparked fresh controversy following his surprise appearance at a murder trial involving ex-antigraft leader Antasari Azhar.

The police general, who made headlines following his controversial analogy of Gecko versus Crocodile regarding the battle between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the police, appeared at the hearing without his institution’s authorization.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said Susno had violated police ethics by attending the trial without prior coordination with his superior officer.

“He has violated our rules of ethics and therefore we recommend further examination by the Internal Affairs division.”

When asked about possible punishments, Edward said there were several options that varied from rank demotion to dismissal.

“Let us wait for the examination’s result. We will never hesitate to apply firm punishment to those who have violated ethics regardless of at her rank.”

Susno arrived their the South Jakarta District Court at 10:55 a.m. and met Antasari and his defense lawyers in the main courtroom.

Prior to the hearing, the lawyers said they would bring in a “criminal law expert” as their last witness.

They repeatedly refused to mention the name of the expert and told reporters to “wait and see”.

During the hearing, Susno, who wore a police uniform, claimed he had never ordered Sr. Comr. Williardi Wizard, another defendant in the murder case, to retract his dossier and create a new testimony that Antasari had ordered him to kill businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen.

“I didn’t know anything about his testimony,” he said, adding it was his then deputy, Insp. Gen. Hadiatmoko, who had supervised the investigation of the case under the National Police Chief’s request.

When the lawyer asked him why he had known almost nothing about the Antasari investigation, Susno said it was due to the police’s chain of command.

“The National Police chief directly ordered Insp. Gen. Hadiatmoko to supervise the investigation.

“Even though [Hadiatmoko] was my deputy, it was no longer his obligation to report the progress [of the investigation] to me.”

Susno admitted he had once invited Williardi, former South Jakarta Police chief, to meet him
after the latter was arrested, but only to respond to Williardi’s complaints over his limited chance
to meet and contact his wife and lawyers.

Antasari, former KPK chief, is currently on trial for allegedly masterminding the murder of Nasruddin, a director of state pharmaceutical company PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran.

The ex-KPK chief is thought to have been assisted by Williardi and businessman Sigid Haryo Wibisono.

Williardi allegedly recruited the hit men, and Sigid allegedly provided the funding.