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span class="inline inline-left">Aria Abdi Effendi: (Antara)The high-profile graft scandal that shook the nation’s largest Islamic party was first picked up by the media in 2011, when Tempo magazine ran a cover story on irregularities surrounding the business of imported meat in the country.

It has taken more than two years for the case to get into the hands of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators, who believed that the graft allegations against elite members of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), widely seen as a clean political party, were built on strong evidence.

On Jan. 28, the antigraft commission was informed that there would be a hand-over of bribes in connection to the government’s procurement of imported meat under the Agriculture Ministry.

The next day, a team of KPK investigators departed from their headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, to stakeout the potential perpetrators.

The team followed Ahmad Fathanah, said to be a close aide to PKS chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, who was driving a Land Cruiser to the office of beef importing firm PT Indoguna Utama at Jl. Taruna No. 8 in Pondok Bambu, East Jakarta.

Investigators believed the bribery would take place at Indoguna’s office.

Later in the afternoon, KPK investigators said they saw Indoguna’s directors, Juard Effendi and Aria Abdi Effendi, give a Rp 1 billion (US$ 103,000) bribe to Fathanah. The latter then hurried to the Le Meridien Hotel in Central Jakarta where he was thought to be meeting with Luthfi.

At 8:20 p.m., the KPK raided Fathanah’s hotel room and found that he was accompanied by a young woman named Maharani. The investigators immediately arrested the pair and confiscated the money. A few hours later, Juard and Aria were nabbed at the latter’s house in Cakung, East Jakarta.

The four suspects were then questioned for a prolonged period.

On Jan. 29, the KPK raided and sealed PT Indoguna Utama’s office and seized a computer as evidence.

That day, social media outlets were abuzz with speculation that the KPK would arrest a member of the House of Representatives. Some insinuated that the lawmaker in question was a PKS politician.

The party was quick to deny allegations it was linked to the four people arrested by the KPK on bribery charges. Senior PKS politician Hidayat Nurwahid said that he had asked the party’s representatives at the House and stressed that none of them knew the alleged bribers.

On Jan. 30, the KPK held a press conference to announce the arrest of Juard, Aria, and Fathana and, to the surprise of many, an allegation that a man identified as LHI, the initials of Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, had been implicated. The latter was arrested late on Wednesday during the party’s internal meeting at PKS’ headquarters at Jl. TB. Simatupang in South Jakarta.

According to the KPK, Juard and Aria wanted to give the bribe to Luthfi to secure a slot for the company in a government beef procurement project. It is said that the bribe payers were supposed to give Rp 40 billion to the PKS politician.

The involvement of the PKS in the seedy business of imported meat procurement was reported by Tempo in March 2011, when it published a story on Suripto, one of the founders of PKS and the party’s current head of strategic analysis.

Suripto, also the former secretary-general at the Forestry Ministry, was reportedly responsible for allowing meat importer Basuki Hariman to pressure Prabowo Respatiyo Caturroso, the Agriculture Ministry’s director general for animal husbandry at that time, to grant meat import licenses to Basuki’s companies, CV Sumber Laut Perkasa and PT Impexindo Pratama. According to the report, Suripto acknowledged that he was an acquaintance of Basuki, but denied his involvement in the meat import business.