JAKARTA – Indonesia’s police chief is scheduled to face lawmakers Thursday as a parliamentary panel examines allegations that President Prabowo Subianto was illegally wiretapped by several senior officials, including his own chief of staff.
The allegations have shaken Indonesia’s political and security establishment. They emerged after three senior police generals were detained, among them Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who was appointed Prabowo’s chief of staff in October and is closely linked to former President Joko Widodo. A fourth senior police official has since been drawn into the case.
The president’s office said authorities were investigating the operation as a possible act of treason. The government also deployed 20,000 troops to Jakarta as a precaution, although there has been no visible sign of a large military presence on the capital’s streets. Most of the troops have remained on standby in barracks.
Investigators are also working to establish who ordered the president’s phone to be tapped.
Former President Widodo, widely known in Indonesia as Jokowi, has ties to the main suspects. That connection has further widened the rift between Widodo and Prabowo, said Evan Laksmana, a Singapore-based analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“The majority of Prabowo’s political decision making in the past two years always have some Jokowi overshadowing,” Laksmana said. “So this is kind of Prabowo finally potentially stepping out of Jokowi’s shadow and maybe even going into open political confrontation.”
Lawmakers to question police chief over wiretap investigation
National Police Chief Gen. Suyudi Ario Seto was expected to answer questions from Parliament’s Commission III, which supervises law enforcement and security affairs. The panel is seeking to identify the motive behind the alleged wiretapping and determine whether additional people took part. Seto’s office is overseeing the investigation. He became national police chief after Listyo Sigit Prabowo moved into the president’s chief of staff role.
“We will see this case through until the facts are fully and clearly revealed,” said Commission III Chairman Habiburokhman, who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name. “Anyone found to be involved must be held legally accountable.”
The alleged surveillance may have extended beyond Prabowo, who has not commented on the case. Cabinet officials, politicians, journalists, civil society figures and business executives are also said to have been targeted. Amnesty International has urged a full investigation, warning that the operation may have been used to intimidate critics and erode civil liberties.
Recent anti-government protests have taken place in several major Indonesian cities. Demonstrators have demanded accountability in the wiretap case, criticized Widodo’s continuing political influence and called for the resignation of Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Widodo’s son. On Tuesday, 154 people were detained in Yogyakarta after clashes followed a protest attended by about 2,000 students and activists.
Along with Listyo Sigit Prabowo, authorities have detained Ahrie Sonta Nasution, head of the National Police Legal Division, and Eko Hadi Santoso, a senior instructor at the National Police Education and Training Institute. Both are two-star police generals.
Slamet Uliandi, another two-star general who leads the Information and Communications Technology Division of the Criminal Investigation Agency, has also been implicated. He remains out of custody for health reasons.
Suspect expelled from police as others await ethics hearings
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Nasution was dishonorably dismissed from the police force Tuesday after an internal ethics hearing linked to the wiretap allegations. Similar hearings for the other three suspects were expected to take place soon, police spokesperson Johnny Eddizon Isir said.
None of the suspects has publicly commented on the case.
Listyo Sigit Prabowo previously served as national police chief under Widodo, although the former president has not been implicated in the alleged surveillance. Widodo has said little about the investigation, apart from saying that the legal process should be respected as it proceeds.
Prabowo, a former military general, lost two presidential elections to Widodo before joining his government as defense minister. He later campaigned to succeed Widodo, who was barred by term limits, selected Widodo’s son as his running mate and received the former president’s support.
Raka, however, offered to resign Tuesday amid an investigation into his academic credentials. That matter is unrelated to the wiretap case but has added to the political turmoil and intensified the break between the current and former presidents.
“I think this will be a long, and most likely painful, breakup between Jokowi and Prabowo, and I don’t think you can go back to normal after this,” Laksmana said. “And this is going to be a long painful breakup with many political and security ramifications across the country at a time when the country isn’t doing well.”
Investigators say suspects deleted wiretap recordings
Police allege that the unauthorized surveillance occurred between 2025 and 2026, after Prabowo assumed office and while Listyo Sigit Prabowo was still serving as national police chief.
Few details have been made public. But police said last week that they found evidence indicating Nasution had sought Uliandi’s authorization in October to delete recordings of Prabowo’s telephone conversations. Nasution, who had previously served as a police aide-de-camp to the president, allegedly made the request, which Uliandi approved. The recordings were then deleted, police said.
Nasution’s lawyer, Krisna Murti, did not directly respond to the allegations but said his client would cooperate with investigators.
“Our client will be open to clarifying this case,” Murti said in a video statement.
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Rising reported from Bangkok.
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