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AGO grills former trade minister Lutfi in palm oil graft probe
AGO investigators have again questioned the former trade minister in connection with an ongoing graft probe, specifically over the export policies he imposed last year that led to a nationwide cooking oil shortage.
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Former trade minister Muhammad Lutfi (right) leaves the Attorney General's Office in South Jakarta on August 9, 2023, after he was questioned as a witness in a graft case related to the nationwide cooking oil shortage in 2022. (Antara/Asprilla Dwi Adha)
T
he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on Wednesday questioned former trade minister Muhammad Lutfi as a witness in a corruption case, in relation to an policy on export permits for crude palm oil (CPO) that led to a nationwide cooking oil shortage last year.
Lutfi arrived on Wednesday morning at the AGO in South Jakarta, where investigators questioned him for eight hours over the CPO export policies he imposed from January to April.
Wednesday’s summons was the second for Lutfi after he failed to turn up to an interrogation last week, saying he was accompanying his wife to a doctor’s visit.
“I respect the law. I have tried to answer to the best of my knowledge,” Lutfi told reporters after he was questioned.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo removed Lutfi as his trade minister in June 2022 following a controversy over a series of policy flip-flops on palm oil exports, and later replaced him with National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hasan.
Lutfi was facing political pressure at that time over the government’s efforts to contain a surge in domestic prices for cooking oil. The measures he took included a shocking ban on palm oil exports from the world’s biggest producer of the commodity.
