JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia's deputy manpower minister was charged with extortion, anti-graft investigators said on Friday, after alleging the politician had benefited from illegal fees for the processing of safety permits.
The graft investigation was the first to implicate a member of President Prabowo Subianto's cabinet. Prabowo, who was sworn in last October, has campaigned against corruption.
Deputy minister Immanuel Ebenezer, a member of Prabowo's political party, was arrested along with 10 other people investigated for the case, who include officials with the manpower ministry and two employees of a training provider company, the anti-graft agency chief Setyo Budiyanto said at a press conference.
Immanuel, brought into the press conference wearing an orange vest, denied the extortion charge and apologised to the president, his family and the Indonesian people, without saying what he was apologising for. Reuters could not immediately contact his lawyer.
He and the other defendants were accused of charging 6 million rupiah ($367.31) to process safety permits needed by construction, mining or manufacturing employees to get work, far higher than the official rate of 250,000 rupiah, since 2019, Budiyanto said.
Proceeds from the additional, illegal fees were distributed to ministry officials.
"If the employees did not pay as high as they were required to, the officials would blackmail them by delaying or refusing to process the safety certification application," he said.
Fifteen cars, seven motorcycles and cash worth $12,600 were confiscated as evidence during investigators' sting operations this week, he said.
An extortion charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Manpower Minister Yassierli told reporters on Thursday the case was a huge blow as he has been working on internal governance since taking office 10 months ago.
Immanuel would be immediately replaced if found guilty, a presidential spokesperson has said. The manpower ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
($1 = 16,335.0000 rupiah)
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia, Editing by Gayatri Suroyo and Philippa Fletcher)
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