The Failed Ferdy Sambo Plan

The Failed Ferdy Sambo Plan

Away from the eyes of journalists, Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo went to the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) building in Jalan Trunojoyo, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, the morning of Saturday August 6. The day before, the former chief of the National Police (Polri) Profession and Security Division also went there in uniform. He was questioned over the death of Brig. Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat. Yosua died with seven gunshot wounds at Ferdy’s official residence of in the Polri residential complex in Duren Tiga, South Jakarta on July 8.

Unlike when he came on Friday, Ferdy did not go home immediately after being questioned by the Special Team and the Special Inspectorate on Saturday afternoon, at around 5:30pm. The Special Inspectorate, comprising a number of three-star generals, decided that Ferdy had breached the code of ethics. They took the view that he was involved in the damage to security cameras around his home. It is believed that the tapes from these cameras are one of the keys to the mystery of Brig. Yosua’s death.

Ferdy was detained using the Confinement to a Particular Place mechanism at the Kelapa Dua Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) Headquarters in Depok, West Java. Initially, very few people knew about Sambo’s detention. Journalists only knew that around 20 Brimob personnel and five armored vehicles were at the Bareskrim building until the afternoon.

We only received news of Sambo’s detention on Saturday afternoon. We immediately sought confirmation of it because if it were true, it would be a major development to the case. It would mean that the police had finally summoned up the courage to move forward in their investigation into Yosua’s death, which had triggered debate and public suspicion over the last month. The police gave the impression of protecting Ferdy by trying to create an alibi and a chronology of Yosua’s death by providing explanations that did defied logic.