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ith the public standing behind it in opposition to the possible prosecution of its leader for defamation, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has pushed for a thorough investigation into allegations that law enforcers had been involved in drug smuggling.

Kontras on Friday called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who cited an alleged “illegal drug emergency” as the reason to carry out executions of drug convicts, to create an independent team to dismantle the entire network of the executed drug dealer Freddy Budiman, who reportedly claimed to have been working with high ranking officials in the National Police, the Indonesian Military and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).

Jokowi needed to establish an independent team to ensure officials involved with Freddy in the smuggling of 1.4 million ecstasy pills from China to Indonesia in 2012 would be revealed, said Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar.

“We advise the President to create an independent team that has the authority to do an internal investigation into each relevant institution,” Haris said on Friday at Kontras’ office in Jakarta.

The urgency to create an independent team arose after Kontras studied the case against Muhamad Muhtar, a person convicted of helping Freddy manage the transportation of a package containing drugs from Tanjung Priok Port to a warehouse in Kamal Raya, Cengkareng, West Jakarta.

On May 15, 2012, the BNN and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise had created a team to conduct a controlled delivery, which is a technique the authorities can use to identify suspects who are trying to smuggle drugs from one country to another.

The team was responsible for identifying the suspected drug carrier who intended to smuggle the contraband from other country, Haris said.

“In the controlled delivery process, [the team] has to make sure who the transporters, receivers, distributors and other parties involved in the transportation of the package are,” observer Bambang Widodo Umar said.

However, based on the verdict, Muhtar was caught in the middle of the road from Tanjung Priok Port to a warehouse at Kamal Raya after he exited the Kamal toll road. Haris said the team had failed to do the controlled delivery operation since it was supposed to wait until Muhtar reached the warehouse so that he would reveal those involved in the whole chain of the drug trafficking process.

Previously, the National Police, the BNN and the TNI had reported Haris for defamation after Haris wrote a Facebook post indirectly accusing members of three institutions of complicity in the drug trade.

However, the National Police announced on Wednesday that it has suspended the investigation into the allegations of Haris’ defamation.

National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian formed a team of 18 members including some well known figures such as Hendardi, the executive director of human rights watchdog Setara Institute, Poengky Indarti, the commissioner of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas) and popular communications expert Effendi Ghazali from the University of Indonesia.

The BNN had also created a team to investigate Haris’ claims. It had questioned the former warden of the Nusakambangan Island prison, Liberty Sitinjak, who Haris claimed had witnessed the meeting between him and Freddy. In addition, the TNI has also put together a team to further investigate the possible involvement of TNI members in the drug smuggling, as stated in Haris’ claims about Freddy.

“If each team is working independently, there would be a possibility that they could contradict each other in the process of uncovering the truth,” Haris said.

Haris added that the evidence from Muhtar’s trial was just the beginning and Kontras will start revealing more evidence and facts soon. (win)