Prosecutors had officially named Priana a suspect last month for his alleged role in the case, which centers on a 2005 municipal project to relocate street vendors, for which Priana served as head of the executing committee.

He was at the time the Bandung administration's finance division head.

"This is the first time he has been questioned as a suspect in the case," said Eko Sunarno, head of the Bandung Prosecutor's Office's special crimes unit.

"He was previously questioned as a witness."

Eko said investigators would also summon Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada for questioning as a witness in the case.

In the project, the Bandung administration paid Rp 2.5 billion from its 2004 budget to a company named CV Usaha Mandiri to relocate hundreds of street vendors from their previous places of operation.

The vendors had to be relocated as they were considered to be causing traffic jams in seven busy spots across the city.

The money, which should have been paid back to the administration by April 2005, was never returned.

In addition, street vendors who had been moved to the Toko Ria store on Jl. Otto Iskandar Dinata have since moved back to their previous spots on the streets.

In July, the prosecutor's office arrested the chairman of the street vendors' association, Iwan Suherman, who is also the director of CV Usaha Mandiri, and named him the prime suspect in the case.

Priana, accompanied at Wednesday's questioning by his lawyer, Kuswara Taryono, deflected all reporters' questions to the latter.

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