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Indonesia' Minister of Communication and Information Technology Johnny Gerard Plate has been arrested following allegations of corruption on May 17.

Handcuffed, escorted

According to Antara, Indonesia's Attorney General's Office arrested Plate on May 17.

Video showed Plate being escorted out of the AGO's offices in a pink and black vest, as well as being handcuffed.

Kejagung menggeledah mobil Johnny G. Plate yang terparkir di depan Gedung Bundar Jampidsus Kejagung. 🧐 pic.twitter.com/6Rsj2GPSqy

— LALA🇲🇨 (@Cintada16) May 17, 2023

Plate was named as a suspect in an alleged corruption case, involving the supply of 4G Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) towers for projects by the Telecommunications and Informatics Accessibility Agency (BAKTI), an agency under his control.

8 trillion rupiah

According to Bloomberg, the project was meant to fast-track high-speed telecommunications services throughout Indonesia.

The plan had been, according to Antara, to build nearly 8,000 BTS towers in what is referred to as 3T (terdepan, terluar, tertinggal i.e. the outermost places are left behind) regions, which are the outermost, relatively underdeveloped regions of Indonesia.

An audit report by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency said that more than Rp8 trillion (S$722.2 million) was lost as a result of these projects.

He was the sixth suspect named by the AGO, and was arrested after he was called for a third round of questioning.

Ministerial corruption

Plate is the most recent Indonesian minister to face arrest on corruption charges.

In 2021, both the Social Affairs Minister Juliari Peter Batubara and Fisheries Minister Edhy Prabowo were sentenced to 12 and five years respectively, both for corruption.

According to Bloomberg, this scandal comes after the recent revelation of a 14-year US$20 billion (S$26.9 billion) tax scandal; with Indonesia's ranking on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index dropping from 96 to 110 between 2021 and 2022.

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Top image via @chyntiaaasari/Twitter