Indonesia’s former chief detective, who recently exposed a major corruption case involving government and police officials, has been detained on allegations that he accepted a bribe in 2008.
General Susno Duadji was detained and questioned for several hours Monday after it was alleged that he accepted as much as 500 million rupiah (US$55,000), police spokesman Major-General Edward Aritonang said.
The allegation relates to a dispute between two businessmen involved in a fish-breeding project in Riau province. A suspect in the case, Sjahril Djohan, accused Duadji of accepting the bribe while he was chief detective of the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency.
Duadji, a three-star general in the police, has denied any wrongdoing and told reporters that the police team investigating his case is biased.
Duadji has made enemies for being outspoken about corruption within police ranks, but some say Duadji has also broken the law.
Aritonang said Duadji’s detention had nothing to do with his outspokenness.
“We suspect he broke the corruption law by taking bribes and gratuities,” Aritonang told reporters.
Duadji resigned from his police post in November last year amid a wave of public rage over escalating and widespread corruption.
He was accused of plotting to undermine the Corruption Eradication Commission after ordering the arrest of two of its members for alleged blackmail and bribery. The charges were later dropped.
Although he was silent on corruption while in the job, since his resignation Duadji has publicly implicated a tax department official, several high-ranking police officials and a judge in corruption, leading to their detentions. T
he tax official, Gayus Tambunan, was on the run in Singapore before being detained last month on charges of accumulating some US$3.9 million in kickbacks for producing favorable tax assessments.
Before he was detained, Duadji’s lawyers had told reporters that he would publicize other huge corruption cases involving top officials.
Duadji’s wife, Herawati, asked Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday to pay special attention to her husband’s case.
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