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ogor Deputy Mayor Achmad Ru’yat, a politician from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), was detained on Tuesday by the Bogor Prosecutors Office for his alleged role in the misuse of the 2004 regional budget.

Ru’yat was sent to Paledang Penitentiary in Bogor after being questioned by prosecutors for his alleged role in misusing Rp 6.5 billion in the local budget, which was approved when he served as Bogor Council deputy speaker.

“We are detaining [Achmad] for 20 days,” said M. Fatria, head of the special crimes department at the Bogor Prosecutors Office.

Fatria also dismissed speculation that Ru’yat’s detention was politically motivated.

Responding to his detention, Ru’yat quipped that he would no longer be able to engage in his favorite pastime, soccer.

The detention of Ru’yat deals a severe blow to efforts from the Bogor administration to paint a picture of the city as a haven for piety.

The city mayor, Diani Budiarto, nominated by major political parties including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, PKS and Golkar Party in her election in 2008, expected that in 2011 Bogor could claim itself a halal city.

Diani said that for the city to achieve halal status, all slaughterhouses in Bogor must abide by the Islamic code in the slaughtering of livestock. The city government has also asked city-owned drinking water company PDAM Tirta Pakuan to guarantee the halal quality of its product.

Bogor is also known for its slogan Beriman, which means holding faith. Beriman is also short for bersih, indah and nyaman, which mean clean, beautiful and comfortable.

With the prosecution of Ru’yat, Bogor has followed in the footsteps of Bekasi, another municipality that promotes itself as a pious city, but saw its mayor detained by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last year for involvement in a corruption case.

The KPK detained Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Muhammad December last year for his alleged role in the misuse of the Bekasi budget, including a bribery case to win the 2010 Adipura Cleanliness Award and embezzlement in a fictitious project.

Political analyst from Charta Politika, Yunarto Wijaya, said the detention of Ru’yat showed how deep the PKS was in trouble in recent days.

“There may not be direct proof of this, but it is safe to say that what we see today is a tit-for-tat situation in which parties involved use legal means as their instruments,” Yunarto told The Jakarta Post.

The PKS currently has a strained relationship with the government, following its moves to contradict the political initiatives taken by the Democratic Party, the political vehicle of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.