T

he government confirmed Saturday that fugitive businesswoman Neneng Sri Wahyuni, a graft suspect in solar panel procurement project at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, was in hiding in Malaysia.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry Directorate General of Immigration said records showed the wife of embattled Democratic Party politician and graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin entered the country after she parted from her husband in Colombia on July 25.

Immigration spokesman Maryoto Sumadi said his office was revoking her passport to stop her from exiting the country. “This will help us repatriate her,” he said on Saturday.

Neneng is the finance director at Permai Grup, a holding company affiliated with Nazaruddin. The group has several subsidiaries, some of them implicated in the 35 graft cases surrounding state projects that Nazaruddin was allegedly involved in.

In the solar panel procurement case, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) declared Neneng a suspect for her role in PT Alfindo Nuratama Perkasa, a Permai Grup subsidiary that won a bid to carry out the Rp 8.9 billion (US$1.04 million) project in 2008.

The company breached its contract with the ministry as it paid other firms to run the project at a lower cost of Rp 5.2 billion. The KPK said the markup led to Rp 3.8 billion in state losses. Neneng is an executive at Alfindo, but the KPK has not officially commented on her role in the company.

Neneng accompanied her husband, a suspect in a SEA Games bribery scandal, when he was on the run overseas, along with family member Nazir Rahmat and Singaporean national Eng Kiam Lim. She had already left him when local police arrested him in Cartagena, Colombia.

“[Immigration officials] are in contact with our immigration attaché in Malaysia. They are already moving [to find her],” Maryoto said.

Interpol has issued a red notice for Neneng, asking member nations to detain her based on an arrest warrant from the KPK.

The red notice, through which Interpol member states are requested to provisionally arrest Neneng, states that she is 29 years old, 164 centimeters tall, weigh 57 kilograms and speaks Indonesian and English.

Nazaruddin has made clear that he wants guaranteed safety for his family. He refused to answer questions by KPK investigators last Thursday and instead issued a plea for his wife and children’s safety to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in return for not implicating Democratic Party officials’ involvement in the graft case.

Unlike previous boasts, where he claimed he had enough evidence to bring down key party and KPK officials, Nazaruddin appeared silent and gloomy in front of journalists after his arrival, gestures critics have called a ploy to distract attention away from the investigation.

Alfrian Bondjol, Neneng’s lawyer, said he did not know where Neneng was and denied she was involved in the graft case.

The National Police said it had formed a special team to arrest Neneng, but did not disclose where it would focus its search.