Ilham Arief Sirajuddin. (Antara)

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has renamed former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin a suspect in a corruption case regarding management rehabilitation partnership and installation transfers for the Makassar state tap water company (PDAM) in the budget years 2006-2012, an antigraft body official says.

'€œA new 'sprindik' [letter ordering the start of an investigation] has been issued,'€ KPK chief of information and communication Priharsa Nugraha said as quoted by Antara news agency in Jakarta on Wednesday.

In a pretrial hearing at the South Jakarta District Court on May 12, lone judge Yuningtyas Upiek Kartikawati fulfilled Ilham Arief'€™s request to annul his naming as a suspect in the case by the KPK.

According to the judge, evidence submitted by the KPK was only in the form of photocopies, with the original documents never being provided.

The court previously decided that the KPK had improperly named Ilham Arief as a suspect because the commission did so before it had presented two solid pieces of initial evidence.

Following the court'€™s decision on the pretrial hearing request, Priharsa said, KPK investigators had returned evidence they had confiscated from two locations, namely PDAM Makassar and PT Traya Makassar.

'€œWith the issuance of a new '€˜sprindik'€™, the investigators have again confiscated the evidence,'€ he said.

The KPK named Ilham Arief a suspect on May 7, a day before his term of office as Makassar mayor ended.

The Democratic Party politician, who served as Makassar mayor for two periods, namely 2004-2009 and 2009-2013, was accused of being involved in project markups causing state losses of Rp 38.1 billion (US$2.86 million). (ebf)(+++)

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