Two police arrested in connection with acid attack on Indonesian graft investigator

The attack left Novel Baswedan partially blind. (File/AFP)

• The investigator believes the attack is connected to graft cases he was handling at the time
• Authorities believe the suspects are “active policemen”

JAKARTA: Two Indonesian police officers have been arrested in connection with an acid attack on a senior investigator with the Corruption Eradication Commission that left him partially blinded, police said on Friday.
The investigator, Novel Baswedan, has said he believes the attack, while he was walking home from a mosque in April 2017, was connected to graft cases he was handling at the time.
In January, police formed a fact-finding team to investigate the attack, but came up empty-handed. President Joko Widodo ordered that a new police chief, appointed in November, solve the case by the end of the year.
In an interview with Reuters this month, Baswedan questioned the government’s commitment.
“It’s easy to solve my case,” he said. “It’s just the matter of whether they want to or not.”
Listyo Sigit Prabowo, head of the police criminal investigations department, told reporters the suspects, arrested on Thursday, were “active policemen.”