JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesia's anti-corruption commission has arrested the country's central bank governor on graft charges, a spokesman for the body said Thursday.
The watchdog, which has been investigating Burhanuddin Abdullah since February 14 over the alleged misappropriation of 11 million dollars in bank funds, said he was taken in for questioning early Thursday and later arrested.
"He was officially arrested not long ago, at around 3:30 pm," Corruption Elimination Commission (KPK) spokesman Johan Budi told AFP.
"He is under arrest in relation to suspicion of misuse of 100 billion rupiah (11 million dollars) in Bank Indonesia funds."
Under Indonesian law, the KPK can detain suspects for investigation for an initial 20 days, then for up to 60 days without charge.
"This detention is very sudden. I am disappointed," Abdullah, who has denied any wrongdoing, told journalists as he arrived at the national police headquarters on Thursday.
Abdullah is alleged to have taken money from the central bank to pay 31.5 billion rupiah to lawmakers deliberating amendments to the central bank law in 2004.
The governor is due to step down next month at the end of a five-year term.
He indicated earlier this year that he would not seek re-appointment, and parliament on Wednesday approved chief economics minister Budiono to succeed him.
Two other suspects in the case, the bank's legal affairs director Oey Hoeng Tiong and the former head of its communications bureau Rusli Simanjuntak, were detained in February and remain in custody.
Bank Indonesia's board said it was "deeply concerned" by their detention.
In a statement published on the BI website, it said it had "always fully respected the legal process" and shown "good intentions" during the KPK investigation."
Abdullah's lawyer Muhammad Assegaf said he would seek his client's release.
"A suspect should only be detained if there are indications or concerns they might flee, destroy evidence or make the investigation difficult," he said.
"Our client has always been cooperative during the investigation, and even after he was declared a suspect, he has continued to be invited to the (presidential) palace and to various international and national events."
Indonesia is one of the world's most corrupt countries and ranks 143rd on Transparency International's global corruption perceptions index, on an equal pegging with Russia, Togo and Gambia.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to stamp out endemic corruption when he was elected in 2004.
But new graft scandals continue to emerge, most recently last month, when a top prosecutor was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes from the banker he was supposed to be investigating.
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