Judge Khamazaro Presides Over North Sumatra PUPR Corruption Trial Despite Alleged Burning of His House

The Medan Metropolitan Police are still awaiting the results of the forensic laboratory examination to determine the cause of the fire at the home of Medan District Court judge, Khamozaro Waruwu. Police continue to stand guard at Khamozaro's partially burned house in the Taman Harapan Indah complex, Medan, Thursday (6/11/2025).

"We are conducting a thorough, scientific crime investigation. We will examine the source of the fire and compare it with the findings from the crime scene, along with the Inafis team and the forensic laboratory," said Medan Police Chief, Senior Commissioner Calvijn Simanjuntak.

The investigation into the cause of the house fire is also being directly monitored by the North Sumatra Regional Police. Cavijn, along with the Director of General Criminal Investigation of the North Sumatra Regional Police, Kombes Ricko Taruna Mauruh, is leading the crime scene investigation.

Khamozaro is the Chair of the Panel of Judges at the Medan District Court, presiding over a corruption case related to road construction involving the former Head of the Public Works and Spatial Planning Office of North Sumatra Province, Topan Ginting, a close associate of North Sumatra Governor Bobby Nasution. The trial for the project valued at IDR 231.8 billion is still ongoing.

According to Kompas, the fire burned down Khamozaro's master bedroom, the room he occupied daily. The rest of the house remained intact. Khamozaro still lives there.

Several police officers were seen standing guard at the entrance to the housing complex. Other officers were patrolling the complex.

Calvijn stated that they have conducted a crime scene investigation and examined several witnesses, including Khamozaro, his family, the neighborhood head, neighbors, and individuals who witnessed the fire and assisted in extinguishing it. The results of the examination will be correlated with forensic laboratory tests to determine the cause of the fire.

The fire occurred earlier on Tuesday (4/11/2025). The firefighters received a report at 10:41 AM WIB. The fire was successfully extinguished at 11:18 AM. Khamozaro received information about the fire while presiding over a hearing at the Medan District Court. He immediately adjourned the hearing and requested security personnel to escort him on a motorcycle.

Halomoan Panjaitan, a security officer at the housing complex, stated that he was on duty at the entrance of the complex when the fire occurred. "There are two entrances to the complex that contains 125 houses, but we only guard one," said Halomoan.

Although it was guarded, Haloman stated, people were free to enter and exit the complex. They only checked individuals deemed suspicious. At the time of the fire incident, according to Haloman, no suspicious individuals entered the residential complex.

Halomoan stated that there are no surveillance cameras (CCTV) at the guard post. Khamozaro's house and several surrounding houses also do not have CCTV, except for one house across from Khamozaro's. However, the coverage of that camera does not extend to the street and Khamozaro's house.

The room that caught fire was inside the house and had no windows or walls directly adjacent to the street.

Khamozaro stated that the fire occurred while his house was unoccupied. His wife had just left the house about 20 minutes prior. Several valuable belongings of Khamozaro were also burned. The official uniform that Khamozaro usually wears while serving at the Medan District Court was also destroyed in the fire.

"There were several items that were burned, such as employee documents, our wife's jewelry that we had collected for decades, and our children's documents," he said.

Khamozaro stated that there are no CCTV cameras in his home. He hopes that the police can quickly determine the cause of the fire in his house. "I hope there will be peace for me and my family," he said.

Khamozaro is the head of the panel of judges presiding over the corruption case related to the road construction project in North Padanglawas Regency, specifically the construction of the Sipiongot-Labuhanbatu road valued at Rp 96 billion, the Hutaimbaru-Sipiongot road at Rp 61.8 billion, and several national road segments.

The case revealed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) involves the former Head of the Public Works and Spatial Planning Office of North Sumatra, Topan Ginting, Rasuli Efendi Siregar as the former Head of the Gunung Tua UPTD of the Public Works and Spatial Planning Office of North Sumatra, and Heliyanto from the National Road Implementation Work Unit (PJN) Region I North Sumatra.

Two contractors involved in the bribery have also been implicated, namely M Akhirun Efendi Piliang as the President Director of PT Dalihan Natolu Group and his son, M Rayhan Dulasmi Piliang as the Director of PT Rona Namora.

Khamozaro once mentioned that Bobby Nasution, the Governor of North Sumatra, should be presented to testify as a witness in the trial. During the trial, Khamozaro also intensively explored the roles of former South Tapanuli Police Chief Adjunct Commissioner Yasir Ahmadi, former Secretary of the North Sumatra Development Planning, Research and Development Agency Dikky Anugerah Panjaitan, and former Acting Secretary of the North Sumatra Provincial Government Effendy Pohan.

Khamozaro even requested the prosecutors of the KPK to issue a letter of investigation order or a determination of suspects against the three witnesses. According to him, their roles are very important in the corruption case.

Khamozaro also explored the testimonies of several key witnesses, particularly Topan and Effendy, regarding the budget reallocation policy for the project. The two projects were not previously listed in the North Sumatra Regional Budget (APBD).

Khamozaro stated that, based on the trial facts, something very odd was observed in the progress of the two projects since the budget shift. The panel of judges will look for mens rea, or malicious intent, that was evident since the budget shift.

Khamozaro stated that the meeting regarding the budget shift was conducted by the North Sumatra Regional Government Budget Team on March 12, 2025. Just one day later, Bobby had signed the North Sumatra Governor Regulation Number 16 of 2025 concerning the Third Amendment to the North Sumatra 2025 Regional Budget Explanation. The budget shift was carried out through the governor regulation without the approval of the North Sumatra Regional House of Representatives.

A day after his house was burned down, Khamozaro continued to preside over the hearing with the agenda of reading the charges against two contractors. Akhirun and Rayhan were each charged with 3 years and 2.5 years in prison for bribing state officials to obtain a project.