Indonesian Speaker of the House declared suspect in mega-corruption scandal

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian Speaker of the House Setya Novanto was declared a suspect in a major corruption scandal by the country’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Monday, July 17. 

The scandal involves huge amounts of money that were allegedly siphoned off funds earmarked for a government project to issue new identification cards to Indonesia’s 255 million inhabitants.

Novanto, who is also the head of major political party Golkar, was a person of interest in the case since 2009. KPK investigators said in a press conference that he played a major role in the scandal, from setting the budget to picking which companies would supply the identification cards.

Novanto is no stranger to controversy. He was involved in several other cases and was criticized for appearing with then US Presidential candidate Donald Trump in a press conference in September 2015. Later that year, he was forced to resign his post of Speaker of the House after being accused of an ethics violation involving major mining company Freeport. He was reinstated as speaker in November 2016. —Rappler.com