JAKARTA, June 4 — Indonesia’s anti-graft agency has arrested the country’s deputy minister for immigration affairs, ‌a spokesman said today, making him the second high-profile government official in two days to face corruption charges.

The arrest came a day after Indonesia’s Attorney ‌General’s Office (AGO) detained Dadan Hindayana, the former head of an agency which oversees President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme. Dadan was named as a suspect in a corruption case linked to the programme’s governance and procurement.

The two alleged corruption cases are unconnected.

Silmy Karim, Deputy Minister for Immigration and Correctional Affairs, was arrested on charges of corrupt practices in the administration of immigration documents, Budi Prasetyo, spokesperson with anti-graft agency KPK, told Reuters in a text message.

He did not elaborate further.

Silmy ‌had been questioned at the KPK’s office since last night and ⁠emerged around 10 hours later this morning in handcuffs and wearing an orange ⁠jacket, indicating that he has ⁠been named as ⁠a suspect. He was then transported to a detention house.

The alleged corruption took place in 2023 to 2024, Budi said. Silmy served as ⁠director general for immigration affairs under Prabowo’s predecessor Joko Widodo during the period.

The agency has also identified seven other suspects related to this case, he added.

Further details are expected to be released later on Thursday afternoon, the agency said.

Prabowo took office in 2024 pledging to ⁠eradicate corruption and crack down on the illegal exploitation of Indonesia’s vast natural resources.

In April, the country’s chief ombudsman was arrested just six ⁠days after his appointment for allegedly taking a bribe from a local ⁠nickel company.

“Honestly, ⁠we have been deeply concerned over the past two days by the repeated events which we clearly did not expect,” State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi ‌said today.

He said the government respects the legal proceedings being conducted by the anti-graft agency and the AGO. — Reuters

 

Anderson offers a contrast that we should not only contemplate now but ready ourselves to deal with if and when the fever breaks. And that had better happen before Big Brother finishes wiping out the parts of history we aren’t supposed to remember.That’s neither a joke nor partisan exaggeration: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of […]

A Chinese military court handed suspended death sentences on Thursday to two former defence ministers for corruption, state media said.

They are the harshest sentences that Beijing has slapped on high-ranking military officials as part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign.

Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu’s sentences will be “commuted to life imprisonment” after a two-year reprieve, the Xinhua state news agency reported.

See also: Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun under investigation for corruption – report

The ex-ministers, who served between 2018 and 2023, were also former members of China’s powerful Central Military Commission, which oversees the military, and frequently appeared on television.

Wei was convicted of accepting bribes and Li was convicted of accepting and offering bribes, Xinhua said.

The pair were also stripped of their political rights for life as well as their personal property.

The deputy head of the Macau Public Security Police (PSP) is among 26 people arrested after the city’s Judiciary Police (PJ) smashed three prostitution rings last week, according to local media.

Apart from PSP Deputy Commissioner Leong Heng Hong, 60, the PJ also nabbed two other serving PSP officers and two retired PJ officers, Macau Business reported on Monday.

The two other PSP officers are a 51-year-old acting department head, surnamed Chan, and a 54-year-old officer, surnamed So.

According to a PJ statement issued on Saturday, officers raided three sauna venues, five offices and 23 other locations on Friday.

They arrested 24 men and two women, aged 39 to 68, comprising 18 Macau residents, six mainland Chinese and two Hong Kong residents.

“The three criminal syndicates were found to have engaged in manipulated prostitution from 2016 to 2024 respectively, receiving illegal proceeds ranging from about MOP 230 million to 320 million,” the PJ said.

Each syndicate had offered bribes to the involved law enforcement personnel each month, it added.

“The aforesaid incumbent personnel of public security forces had profited no less than HKD 470,000 each month, while the two retired Judiciary Police personnel [had profited] no less than HKD 300,000 each month.”

Preliminary investigations showed that the syndicates recruited Asian and Eastern European women to engage in prostitution.

Twelve suspects, including the PSP officers, were remanded in custody.

The two Hong Kong residents – a 39-year-old man surnamed Cheuk, reportedly a sauna parlour shareholder, and a 41-year-old woman surnamed Lam, said to be a sauna worker, were also remanded.

The other 14 suspects, including the two retired PJ officers, were released subject to legal restrictions.

The case has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office for further investigation, according to a statement issued by the office on Sunday.

Am I missing any?? Happy Easter ladies and gents!

Any more you folks can add! Have a lovely Monday!

Of course, this guide assumes you had enough wasta to actually GET a job as a civil servant!

It is a truism that the deficit falls under Democratic administrations and rises under Republican administrations, and that the last three presidents to lower the deficit were Clinton, Obama and Biden.It is also a truism that if you laid every economist in the country end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. It’s a […]

I vow to do this in every restaurant that allows smoking by bending the rules and letting the windows open. Just because you have a few glass curtain windows it doesn’t mean we’re not getting affected by the smoke for goodness sake! In other news, yesterday I found out that not only does my dad [...]