Indonesia arrests former top graft prosecutor after police raids
Adriansyah was once Indonesia’s most powerful anti-corruption prosecutor
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INDONESIA’S former top graft prosecutor was arrested on suspicion of money laundering, weeks after police raids uncovered US$26 million worth of gold bars and cash at a house he owns.
Febrie Adriansyah, who was deputy attorney general for special crimes, was detained late Friday and escorted to a detention facility of the Corruption Eradication Commission for an initial 20 days, the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on Saturday (Jul 25).
He had earlier on Friday faced about 10 hours of questioning by the AGO, local reports said.
Dressed in a gray long-sleeved batik shirt when detained, he was neither handcuffed nor wearing the pink vest typically worn by detainees in AGO custody, media photographs and videos showed.
Adriansyah, speaking briefly with reporters outside the AGO as he was escorted to a van for transfer, said he told investigators that the evidence presented “still needs to be examined further,” adding that “in my view, the evidence is not yet sufficient to justify detention.”
Still, detention was “a decision by the leadership, and I am prepared to face it,” he said. He added that he felt “this is an act of criminalisation,” without elaborating.
A Corruption Eradication Commission spokesman told local media that it was holding Adriansyah at the AGO’s request and that authority over the investigation remained with the AGO’s prosecutors.
Anang Supriatna, head of the AGO’s legal information centre, said in a statement that the case concerned alleged money laundering committed by state officials during their time at the agency. He didn’t disclose further details, citing an effort to avoid disrupting the investigation’s next phase.
The detention ended days of speculation over whether Adriansyah would be taken into custody after police named him a suspect and another suspect in the case was detained.
Adriansyah, who has denied owning the gold bars and cash, stepped down from his position at the AGO earlier this month in the wake of the police raids, which authorities linked to multiple cases of graft and money laundering.
Police named Adriansyah a suspect before transferring the cases to the AGO, a move that drew criticism because it left the institution investigating one of its former senior officials.
Confusion deepened after the AGO said Adriansyah would initially be questioned as a witness in a separate, newly opened money-laundering inquiry tied to the seized assets, even though he remained a suspect in one of the investigations transferred by police.
Adriansyah was questioned by prosecutors on Jul 17 but failed to appear for another questioning session on Wednesday, citing illness.
The investigation exposes the thorny question of how the AGO will investigate and potentially prosecute one of its own in a high-profile case that has grabbed national attention amid President Prabowo Subianto’s promises to fight systemic corruption in South-east Asia’s largest economy.
Adriansyah was Indonesia’s most powerful anti-corruption prosecutor, overseeing some of the nation’s highest-profile cases, including investigations into state oil and gas giant Pertamina and former education minister and Gojek cofounder Nadiem Makarim. He also chaired a government task force that reclaimed millions of hectares of forest land from companies accused of unlawful use.
The office is also currently investigating Prabowo’s free meals programme, a multibillion-dollar initiative to deliver meals to more than 80 million students and mothers across the world’s fourth-most populous nation.
The head of the programme stepped down this week for health reasons, less than two months after her predecessor was detained in the probe.
Febri Diansyah, a former spokesman for the anti-graft commission, said on Friday that he had been appointed to represent Adriansyah. Adriansyah’s previous lawyer, Hotman Paris, told reporters on Thursday that he had resigned, citing health reasons and plans to travel abroad for medical treatment.
Adriansyah’s detention came hours after the AGO swore in Kuntadi, the former head of the office’s asset-recovery agency who goes by one name, as his replacement. BLOOMBERG
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