JakartaPost-Nov 4
Three police generals were named suspects on Tuesday in a sprawling illegal wiretapping case that has targeted President Prabowo Subianto and a number of high-profile and politically exposed individuals over the past year, with authorities seeking to downplay an emerging scandal that could tear apart the governing coalition. The National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) chief, Comr. Gen. Asep Safrudin, made the announcement at a press conference at the police headquarters in South Jakarta late on Tuesday. Three individuals are alleged to have tapped several phone numbers without due process, obtained unauthorized access to critical systems and sought to cover their tracks by deleting the electronic data, Asep explained. A fourth individual, identified by his initials SU, is still being examined as a witness, he added. All individuals are currently being held at the police headquarters detention center. “The suspects are alleged to have conducted illegal wiretapping on the phone number of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, state officials, political figures, members of the media, mass organization leaders, civil society figures and businesspeople,” the chief investigator said. The suspects are believed to include former police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who was reassigned a month ago as the presidential chief of staff. The other two suspects are believed to be active two-star generals Insp. Gen. Ahrie Sonta Nasution and Insp. Gen. Eko Hadi Santoso, believed to be close allies of the former police chief. The police said the suspects had allegedly ordered the wiretapping operations without first obtaining investigation warrants between 2025 and 2026 and then proceeded to erase the log from the police’s internal computer system in October. The suspects were charged with unlawful wiretapping, interception and data tampering under the Criminal Code and the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law, which carry a maximum penalty between 6 to 10 years in prison. The police however stopped short of revealing the motive behind the moves or who stood to benefit from the bugging operation.
