Indonesia's Deputy Immigration Minister Arrested for Corruption

Amid a crackdown on corruption in Indonesia, the deputy minister for immigration affairs has been arrested over alleged irregularities in the administration of immigration documents.

Budi Prasetyo, spokesperson for the anticorruption agency KPK, confirmed Silmy Karim’s arrest to the Reuters news agency on Thursday.

The alleged corruption occurred from 2023 to 2024, said Budi, when Karim served as director general for immigration affairs under then-President Joko Widodo.

Karim was questioned at the KPK office on Wednesday night, and about 10 hours later, he emerged in handcuffs and an orange jacket on Thursday morning to be transferred to detention.

Budi added that the KPK has also identified seven other suspects in the case. More details about the case are expected to be released later on Thursday, he added.

The action comes a day after the country’s Attorney General’s Office (AGO) arrested Dadan Hindayana, the former head of an agency that oversees President Prabowo Subianto’s free-meals programme to fight malnutrition, on corruption charges. Two more suspects were also arrested in the case.

According to Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, the AGO’s director of investigation, the free-meals programme is implemented through foundations operating in schools, which investigators allege were used to facilitate criminal activities.

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

He added that the government respects the legal proceedings by the KPK and the AGO.

Earlier, Indonesia’s chief ombudsman was arrested in April, just six days after his appointment, on charges of accepting a bribe from a local nickel company.