H

ope of finding the masterminds behind a high-profile bribery case came to light as the country’s top antigraft body brought home long-time graft fugitive Nunun Nurbaeti from Thailand on Saturday.

Tightly guarded, Nunun, the wife of former National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. (ret.) Adang Daradjatun, arrived at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 5:40 p.m. on Saturday.

She was brought back home on board a Garuda Indonesia flight after being arrested by Thai police at a rented house in Bangkok on Wednesday, Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Chandra Hamzah said Saturday.

Indonesian Ambassador to Thailand, Muhammad Hatta, said Thai police and the Interpol officially surrendered Nunun to the KPK on board the Garuda flight.

Wearing a headscarf, Nunun did not respond to any questions from a swarm of journalists as she arrived at the KPK office in South Jakarta.

“She could communicate well,” Chandra said, dismissing repeated claims by Nunun’s family the businesswoman had been suffering from “severe amnesia”.

Hatta, who had also seen Nunun after the arrest, said the 61-year-old “looked healthy”.

Chandra had led the team comprising KPK officers that brought Nunun back to Indonesia. The team was dispatched to Thailand several days ago after the KPK received information from Interpol that she had been sighted in Bangkok.

The KPK had been immediately convinced it was her because Interpol had provided the commission with images of Nunun, Chandra said.

Nunun has been on Interpol’s wanted list since June. She was named a suspect by the KPK in May. However, Nunun managed to flee to Singapore before the commission could issue a travel ban for her, in March 2010.

Nunun has been charged with the alleged distribution of bribes totaling Rp 24 billion (US$2.66 million) to dozens of former lawmakers as part of a Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor election in 2004, which saw Miranda Swaray Goeltom elected.

Twenty-five politicians have been sent to prison in the case, some of whom have been released on parole. Among the 25, 11 are from Golkar.

Golkar Party lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo said the case investigation must not end with Nunun’s arrest.

“I am suspicious that this case has been ‘engineered’ to cut the ‘chain’ so that the real perpetrators will remain secure,” he said.

Observers have deemed Nunun’s role in the case as “merely” as a “cashier” since she did not own the travelers checks that were used to bribe the lawmakers and had no interests in Miranda’s election.

It has also been speculated that “powerful parties” that wanted Miranda to be elected had “sponsored” the bribery, and had helped her to flee after she was named a suspect.

“Many parties also do not want to see Miranda being charged in this case since she may protest by revealing all the wrongdoings at Bank Indonesia in connection with the dubious Bank Century bailout in 2008,” Bambang said.

During her escape, Nunun traveled to several other Southeast Asian nations, raising speculation she had used falsified travel documents since the Indonesian government had revoked her passport in June.