Twenty-two lawyers are ready to defend Comr. Novel Baswedan, a Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator accused of abusing criminal suspects in 2004, a human rights activist has said.

Hariz Azhar of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said Sunday that Edwin Partogi, Hermawanto, Iskandar Sonhaji and Nurkholis Hidayat were among the lawyers ready to represent Novel. "There could be more lawyers [providing legal assistance for Novel]," he said as quoted by tempo.co.

Novel, a prominent investigator for major corruption cases in the country, has been accused of being responsible for the shooting of six robbery suspects in 2004 when he served as Bengkulu Police chief detective.

On Friday evening, Bengkulu and Jakarta police officers went to the KPK headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, in an attempt to arrest Novel. Their attempt failed as hundreds of anti-graft supporters flocked the building to defend Novel.

Many believe that the allegation is an effort to weaken the anti-graft commission.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that the commission had the right to provide legal aid to its investigators. (cor/lfr)