Indonesia’s energy minister made suspect in graft case

JAKARTA, (Reuters) – Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency said yesterday the energy minister was a suspect in a case involving extortion and abuse of authority, the latest in a string of cases that have tainted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s final year in office.

The minister, Jero Wacik, is a senior figure in Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, and the third cabinet minister in the outgoing government to be implicated in a corruption case.

President-elect Joko Widodo, who gained widespread popularity for his clean image, will take over as leader of the world’s third-largest democracy on Oct. 20.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which is increasingly targeting corruption in the natural resources sector, said Wacik was a suspect in a case involving extortion and kickbacks worth about 9.9 billion rupiah ($840,979).

“We have issued a letter on Sept. 2 that raises the status to suspect of JW from the energy and mineral resources ministry,” Zulkarnain, the KPK’s deputy commissioner, told reporters, referring to Wacik by his initials.

Zulkarnain said his agency would request that a travel ban be imposed on him as soon as possible.

A KPK official who declined to be identified confirmed to Reuters that the suspect Zulkarnain was referring to was Wacik.

Senior mining ministry official Sukhyar, who has only one name, said after the KPK announcement that talks with mining giant Newmont Corp, aimed at resuming copper exports, would not be affected by the change in Wacik’s legal status in connection with the case.