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After a four-year investigation, 28 convictions and a long hunt for a key suspect, the woman whose 2004 appointment to Bank Indonesia was allegedly influenced by Rp 24 billion ($2.7 million) in traveler’s checks has finally been named a suspect.

“The evidence has been met so that we can now upgrade her status to a suspect,” Abraham Samad, the chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said on Thursday.

He said Miranda Goeltom, who won the Bank Indonesian senior deputy governor position in 2004, faces up to five years in jail if found guilty.

She is accused of violating two articles of the Law No. 31 of 1999 on corruption and the Criminal Code that concern the provision of presents or promises to civil servants in relation to their positions, and of taking part, assisting or motivating others to engage in corruption.

Abraham said that if the investigation later made it necessary that the suspect be detained, then she would be apprehended. The law provides that anyone accused of charges carrying less than five years does not automatically have to be detained.

Denny Indrayana, the deputy minister for justice and human rights, previously said the government had imposed a travel ban on Miranda starting on Dec. 12.

Abraham said that under a KPK tradition, suspects are usually detained once their cases are close to being given over to the prosecutors for the preparation of the indictment.

Miranda, who says she has no knowledge of the bribery of lawmakers by businesswoman Nunun Nurbaetie to the tune of Rp 24 billion in 2004, has been questioned several times as a witness.

Nunun’s lawyer Ina Rachman, who has repeatedly said that Miranda should also be declared a suspect, hailed the move, saying “we believe that God does not sleep.”

The bribery scandal first emerged in 2008, when former lawmaker Agus Condro Prayitno confessed to KPK investigators that he had received funds in exchange for his vote for Miranda.

Though he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for accepting checks worth a total of Rp 500 million, his confession ultimately led to the conviction of the other lawmakers, many from the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), in the case.

Now, Agus and the political parties whose members were dragged down by the scandal hope that Miranda being named a suspect will lead to the mastermind, the way Nunun’s arrest led to Miranda.

Agus also said that the heads of the political factions at the 2004-2009 House of Representative must know who the donor was because it was they who instructed their members to vote for Miranda.

The PDI-P on Thursday hailed the KPK move as a “new year present,” said one of its top executives, Trimedya Panjaitan.

Trimedya’s fellow PDI-P politician Ganjar Pranowo said the move was only the first step.

“What the real measure [of success] would be is whether the KPK will be able to unravel the case down to its deepest root,” Ganjar said.

He said the provider of the money for the travelers checks distributed to the lawmakers in 2004 was still a mystery.

Golkar Party politician Chairuman Harahap also hailed the KPK’s move but said the anti-graft body should not stop at Miranda’s case.

Further Coverage

Editorial > A10