Indonesian authorities have arrested a senior cabinet minister on corruption charges, the fifth member of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s cabinet to be arrested. Johnny G. Plate, the minister of communication and information technology, was arrested yesterday following a three-hour interrogation by investigators from the office of the assistant attorney general for extraordinary crimes in Jakarta.
As Reuters reported, citing the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), the investigation concerned Johnny’s involvement in the corrupt procurement of equipment needed to build some 4,200 mobile communication towers. The towers were part of a Ministry plan to bring internet access to remote and underdeveloped areas of the archipelago.
Johnny, a member of the NasDem Party, one of the seven parties in Jokowi’s ruling coalition, was arrested “as a user of the budget and as a minister,” Jampidsus Kuntadi, the AGO’s director of investigations, told a press conference yesterday. He did not provide further information about the minister’s exact role in the scheme.