TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Jakarta Metro Police has named three more suspects in the online gambling case linked to the employees of the Ministry of Communication and Digital (Komdigi). The total number of suspects is now 18.

The Head of Public Relations of the Jakarta Metro Police, Police Commissioner Ade Ary Syam Ariandi, said two of the three new suspects, A and MN, have previously been designated as fugitives.

Authorities apprehended MN on Saturday, November 9, 2024, finding another suspect, DM, during the arrest. 

“To date, 18 people have been named as suspects. The two individuals arrested last night are civilians,” said Ade Ary in his statement on Monday.

Ade Ary explained that out of all suspects thus far, 10 are Komdigi employees, while the rest are civilians, correcting its previous statement that mentioned 11 ministry employees have been named as suspects.

Online gambling case involving ministry employees 

The Jakarta Metro Police is investigating a case of alleged abuse of authority by several Komdigi employees tasked with blocking online gambling sites.

“So they were tasked to block online gambling sites. They were given access to view online gambling websites and block them,” said Ade Ary on Friday, 1 November 2024.

The suspects admitted to blocking online gambling sites every two weeks. If within two weeks the site owner did not deposit money to Adhi Kismanto, then the site would be blocked. This group set a fee of Rp8.5 million per site as a security service to prevent blocking.

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