Indonesia Parliament Deputy Named Suspect in Bribery Case

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named a top Indonesian lawmaker Azis Syamsuddin as a suspect in a bribery case on Saturday, September 25.

The House of Representatives deputy speaker has allegedly bribed anti-corruption investigator Stepanus Robin Pattuju in an attempt to drop an investigation into allegations of funding case corruption in Central Lampung in Sumatra’s Lampung province.

“The KPK carried out an investigation which was later found to have sufficient initial evidence. The KPK raised the status of investigation against deputy speaker AZ [Azis Syamsuddin],” KPK chairman Firli Bahuri told a press conference in Jakarta on early Saturday.

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Firli explained that the lawmaker contacted the KPK investigator in August 2020 intending to drop the graft investigation that could drag him and another Golkar Party cadre, Aliza Gunado. The KPK is currently investigating the matter.

The KPK investigator contacted a lawyer namely Maskur Husain to handle the case. Furthermore, Maskur told Azis and Aliza to prepare two billion rupiahs ($140,000), respectively. The KPK investigator also directly contacted Azis for the money, which was then approved. Azis transferred the money to Maskur’s bank account in stages.

The disgraced investigator has now been removed from his post after being a suspect in alleged corruption cases.

Still in August last year, Stepanus Robin allegedly met Azis at his official residence in South Jakarta to receive another payment in a form of cash. The payment was given in stages, comprising $100,000, as well as S$17,600 and S$140,500, respectively.

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“SRP and MH then went to a money changer to exchange the foreign currencies into rupiah by using ID cards of other parties,” the KPK chairman said.