R

iau Governor and Golkar Party politician Rusli Zainal faced a second round of questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) headquarters on Friday in connection with the National Games scandal.

Rusli was quizzed again after being questioned for the first time as a suspect last Friday. It was widely rumored that the Golkar politician would be detained following the second round of questioning, but this was not the case.

After being questioned for more than 11 hours, Rusli said he was asked questions related to the graft-riddled construction of 2012 National Games (PON) venues in Riau. '€œIt was about the budgeting,'€ he said.

Rusli has been implicated in the bribing of a group of local legislators, through Riau Sports and Youth Agency head Lukman Abbas, in an attempt to expedite the revision of a bylaw to increase the budget allocation for the construction of PON venues in Riau.

He has also been accused of accepting a bribe from a private company that benefited from the bylaw.

Seven local legislators have been arrested in connection with the case. KPK investigators also confiscated Rp 900 million (US$94,000) as evidence of the bribe.

Besides the PON graft case, Rusli has also been named a suspect for allegedly abusing his authority to approve the annual work plans of a number of private companies operating in Pelalawan regency, Riau. Two former regents, then Pelalawan regent Tengku Azmun Jafar and then Siak regent Arwin AS, are serving time in connection with the case.

Johan said that the antigraft body would press on with its investigation into the case.

'€œThere'€™s a possibility of developing the case based on the results of the investigation into Rusli,'€ he said.

Johan also ensured that information revealed by Lukman, who testified in court that he paid a $1 million bribe to Golkar lawmakers to approve Riau administration'€™s request to the central government to allocate an additional Rp 250 billion for PON projects. '€œHe mentioned a lot of people who we will ultimately summons as witnesses. It means that we have not sat idly [on the information],'€ he said.

Lukman, who was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the case, claimed that Golkar legislators Kahar Muzakir and Setya Novanto played roles in the case.

Kahar, a member of House of Representatives Commission X on sport, reportedly accepted a bribe while Setya, who is also Golkar'€™s treasurer and leads the party'€™s lawmakers in the House, has been accused of requesting a kickback.

In April, the KPK raided the offices of both Kahar and Setya as part of the commission'€™s investigation of Rusli, the only senior Golkar politician to have been charged in the case.