Indonesia’s Prabowo removes his Chief of Staff amid spying scandal

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto dismissed his chief of staff on November 4 after he was arrested along with two senior police officers over allegations of illegally tapping the phones of the president, cabinet ministers, and other prominent figures.

The president’s office said the alleged activities could amount to treason and threaten national security.

Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who is not related to the president, was one of three serving police officers detained on November 3. They are accused of illegally monitoring the phone communications of the president, journalists, politicians, business people, and others between 2025 and 2026.

Listyo had served as Indonesia’s national police chief for five years before being appointed the president’s chief of staff last month.

Presidential spokesperson Prasetyo Hadi announced his dismissal, saying the alleged actions could amount to treason.

“This was, of course, carried out by certain rogue individuals, and we are also of the view that what was done may already fall into a category that can be considered an act tending toward treason,” Hadi told reporters.

He added that the activities could also endanger national interests and threaten the safety of the country’s leadership, including the president.

The arrests come at a difficult time for Prabowo, who is facing several political and economic challenges. His approval ratings have declined amid public dissatisfaction with government policies.

His administration is also trying to restore investor confidence following record selloffs in the stock market, a weakening currency and warnings from global index provider MSCI about a possible downgrade of Indonesia’s equity market.

Indonesia’s senior minister for legal affairs, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said the government had not yet established why the alleged phone tapping occurred.

Police said the suspects were being investigated for unlawfully monitoring communications involving the president, government officials, journalists, politicians, business people and leaders of social organizations and non-governmental groups.

According to police, the officers arranged the surveillance without receiving formal requests from investigators. They also allegedly ordered the deletion of electronic records of their monitoring activities last month.

Police initially identified the suspects only by their initials. Local media later named the other two officers as Ahrie Sonta Nasution, head of the national police legal division, and Eko Hadi Santoso, a senior officer at the national police educational institution.

Reuters said it could not immediately reach the three suspects or their lawyers for comment.

Political analyst Yanuar Nugroho, a visiting senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said the presidential chief of staff position had limited importance under Prabowo.

He suggested that Listyo may have been appointed to the role to remove him from the more powerful position of national police chief.

Nugroho said Prabowo needed a police chief he could trust and questioned whether Listyo could fulfill that requirement. He also noted that Listyo was widely regarded as a loyal supporter of former president Joko Widodo.

The allegations have raised questions about security within Indonesia’s political leadership and the relationship between the president and senior police figures.

Source – Indonesia News