T

he government claimed Tuesday that it had located fugitive graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin and would raid his hideout.

Law and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said National Police and immigration officers started on Tuesday night operations to bring him back to Indonesia.

“Let me assure you, a team is already moving. They will leave [Tuesday night] from Jakarta,” Patrialis said in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Tuesday on the sidelines of an event to launch several legal service centers and correctional facilities in the province.

He refused to disclose where he believed Nazaruddin was, saying he feared the former Democratic Party treasurer, who is implicated in three corruption cases, could flee again.

Nazaruddin is a suspect in a bribery scandal surrounding a bid for a Southeast Asian (SEA) Games construction project in Palembang, South Sumatra.

The project was commissioned by the Youth and Sports Ministry. Ministry secretary Wafid Muharram is also a suspect in the case and is alleged to have received Rp 3.2 billion (US$375,000) in bribes from Mohamad El Idris of PT Duta Graha Indah, which won the bid.

The scandal is believed to have been masterminded by Nazaruddin with the help of Mindo “Rosa” Rosalina Manulang, a Duta Graha executive.

Nazaruddin is also implicated in other corruption cases regarding government projects that are under investigation by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police.

Patrialis said the team would immediately seek efforts to bring Nazaruddin home should he be found.

“We will ask the government of the country to allow us to bring Nazaruddin back to Indonesia,”
he said.

The KPK said it had been left out of the hunt for Nazaruddin.

“We have not received any information on the plan [to bring Nazaruddin back] or even that Nazaruddin was already located,” KPK chairman Busyro Muqoddas said Monday.

However, he dismissed speculation that there was political intervention in Nazaruddin’s cases.

“We work based on the law, so I guarantee there is no bias in our investigation into Nazaruddin’s role,” Busyro said.

Doubts on the KPK’s impartiality in handling the cases recently surfaced following Nazaruddin’s claims in television interviews that several KPK officials were involved in “politicizing” his cases.

The KPK formed an ethics committee to probe the allegations.

The committee consists of KPK leaders not affected by Nazaruddin’s claims, KPK advisors, as well as law expert Mardjono Reksodiputro and former KPK deputy chairman Sjahruddin Rasul.

In a live interview with fellow Democratic Party member Iwan Piliang broadcast by MetroTV, Nazaruddin accused KPK deputy chairman Chandra Martha Hamzah and KPK deputy chairman of enforcement Brig. Gen. Ade Rahardja of accepting bribes, acts he claims were recorded on CCTV footage.

Both Chandra and Ade dismissed the allegations.

There is also widespread speculation that KPK spokesman Johan Budi once accompanied Ade to a meeting with Nazaruddin at a Japanese restaurant in South Jakarta in January last year.

Johan, who admitted that there was a meeting in 2010, claimed that he was unable to recognize the people he met.

“I did not join the conversation, I simply dined there. There were two legislators at the meeting, but I did not recognize them.”