[Getty Images]
[Getty Images]

A senior Indonesian prosecutor who led the country's war on corruption has been arrested on money laundering charges after police found gold bars and cash worth about 40 billion won ($27.2 million) in his home safe.

Indonesia's Attorney General's Office said Sunday that Febri Adriansyah, former deputy chief of the office's special crimes investigation unit, was arrested Friday after roughly 10 hours of questioning. He is currently held for 20 days at a detention facility run by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which reports directly to the president, while prosecutors continue their investigation. An official at the Attorney General's Office said the case involves money laundering charges but declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

The case began with a police search and seizure on July 10. Officers raided about 10 locations in and around Jakarta, including Febri's home, and discovered 74 kilograms of gold bars along with assets totaling $26.3 million in US dollars, Singapore dollars and other currencies. He submitted his resignation the following day, but prosecutors who took over the case from police did not move to detain him until Friday. The handoff from police to prosecutors — effectively colleagues in the same legal establishment — drew conflict-of-interest concerns from legal experts and academics. Through his lawyers, Febri has denied all charges and maintained that he has been wrongly accused.

Febri had overseen anti-corruption investigations since 2022, building his reputation by probing major state-owned enterprises including mining company Timah, oil firm Pertamina and airline Garuda Indonesia. More recently, he spearheaded a crackdown on senior officials, arresting the head and two deputy heads of the National Nutrition Agency on corruption charges tied to President Prabowo Subianto's signature free school meals program. Prosecutors say they will continue pursuing the investigation into alleged irregularities in that program.


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