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Anti-corruption investigators in Indonesia cannot find the Speaker of the nation's Parliament.
Key points:
- Authorities unsuccessfully attempted to bring Setya in on Wednesday
- The immigration department says Setya has not left the country "via official exit points"
- Attempts to prosecute Setya have implications for political ally Joko Widodo
Setya Novanto is wanted for questioning over a vast corruption scandal involving a botched effort to issue Indonesians with electronic identity cards.
As the chairman of one of Indonesia's largest political parties and an influential powerbroker, Setya is one of Indonesia's most important politicians and attempts to prosecute him have implications for the re-election hopes of his political ally, President Joko Widodo.
Setya is extremely well connected.
In 2016 he was praised as a "great man" by then US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
But corruption rumours have dogged Setya for years.
Investigators with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have been trying to question Setya for months over his role in the $700 million e-ID affair.
The so-called smart cards were supposed to provide easy electronic access to all kinds of government services. The rollout has been slow and the cards do not do much at all.
The KPK said corrupt politicians stole the money that was set aside for the scheme.
KPK investigators have summoned Setya 11 times without success, and last night they took the bold step of going directly to his home to bring him in.
But he was not home, and now nobody seems to know where he is.
His lawyer will not say, and the search for Setya is the talk of the nation.
News channels are reporting little else and social media tags like "Where's Setya?" are running hot.
Indonesia's immigration department said Setya had not left the country "via official exit points".
A KPK spokesman said "if we can't find him soon we'll consider pursuing him further".
Major test case for anti-corruption President
In 2015, Setya was accused of trying to extort $US1.8 billion in shares from US company Freeport McMoran in exchange for allowing the company to continue mining in the province of Papua.
When a recording was released of the alleged extortion attempt Setya told journalists "it was just a joke".
The e-ID investigation is perhaps the biggest threat yet to Setya, and creates problems for Mr Widodo who came to power promising to tackle Indonesia's endemic corruption.
"This will be a very big test case for the President," said political analyst Tobias Basuki, from the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
"It's almost a Catch 22 because Setya Novanto's party is Joko Widodo's backer in Parliament and this case definitely involves other politicians, including politicians from the President's party.
"The biggest risk is getting his allies to be also entrapped in the case, and there's also the challenge of getting less political backing from the powerful politicians who are involved in this case.
"But on the other hand, if Setya Novanto was to go scot-free there would be a lot of backlash on President Widodo's moral legitimacy as an anti-corruption president."
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, corruption, law-crime-and-justice, indonesia
First posted