"If the meeting between Jokowi-Prabowo is going to be used as an excuse not to install our client, it is dangerous. It would disadvantage our client," Razman Nasution, Budi Gunawan`s lawyer, said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Police chief candidate Commissioner General Budi Gunawans (BGs) lawyer Razman Nasution regretted the recent meeting between President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and retired general Prabowo Subianto at the Bogor Palace, West Java, on Thursday (Jan. 29).

"If the meeting between Jokowi-Prabowo is going to be used as an excuse not to install our client, it is dangerous. It would disadvantage our client," Razman Nasution recently stated here at the Police Headquarters.

Despite the ongoing polemic, BG, as the sole police chief candidate, had undergone a series of juridical processes, he stated.

BG was one of the names proposed by the National Police Commission (Kompolnas) to the president. He passed the fit and proper test carried out by the Parliaments Commission III and was approved by the Parliament in its plenary meeting, Nasution remarked.

He was of the viewpoint that BGs selection as the police chief candidate has been politicized.

The lawyer suspected that Jokowi had approached Prabowo Subianto, who led the Red-and-White Coalition (KMP), to seek support if he followed a recommendation made by the Independent Consultative Team.

He urged Jokowi to listen to the views of the Presidential Advisory Council (Watimpres) rather than the Independent team.

Nasution believed that his client must be installed for the sake of law.

On Wednesday (Jan. 28), the Independent Consultative Team recommended the cancellation of a plan to install BG as police chief and proposed the naming of a new candidate for the post of police chief.

"The president should stop any effort to criminalize law enforcers, whoever they are, both from the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as well as the public in general," Syafii Maarif, the head of the Independent Team, recently noted.

BG was named a suspect by the KPK just few days after President Jokowi announced his candidacy as national police chief.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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