Leader of Indonesia’s Aceh province arrested in US$557 million corruption sting
Irwandi Yusuf, a former leader of the rebel Free Aceh Movement, was among 10 people arrested
The governor of Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province has been arrested for alleged embezzlement of the province’s huge special autonomy fund.
Governor Irwandi Yusuf is a former rebel peace negotiator who was elected for a second five-year term as governor last year after losing a re-election bid in 2012.
The 57-year-old had been questioned by Indonesia’s graft-busters, the Corruption Eradication Commission, before his formal arrest after being flown in to Jakarta from Banda Aceh.
Yusuf is among the 10 individuals detained by the anticorruption body following suspicious financial transactions between provincial and regency officials.
Among those, Yusuf and three others, including Ahmadi, regent of Aceh’s Bener Meriah Regency, were transferred to Jakarta, where they were formally arrested.
At a press conference late Wednesday, deputy commission chief Basaria Panjaitan said Yusuf and other suspects allegedly embezzled 8 trillion rupiah (about US$557 million) from the province’s special autonomy funds in a 2018 provincial budget.
Ahmadi is alleged to have given Yusuf 500 million rupiah (US$35,000) as part of a 1.5 billion rupiah “fee” for one of infrastructure projects in Bener Meriah Regency.
