Indonesia's Prabowo sacks chief of staff over wiretap allegations
A presidential spokesman said the alleged surveillance of ministers, politicians and journalists could amount to treason against the state.
Indonesia's presidential chief of staff, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, has been sacked after his arrest over the alleged wiretapping of President Prabowo Subianto, a case the palace said could amount to treason.
Listyo, a former chief of the Indonesian National Police, was sworn into the post on 1 October, Nikkei Asia reported. He was removed on Wednesday, little more than a month later, according to the South China Morning Post. The chief of staff is a senior post in the presidential administration.
The alleged surveillance took in the president, cabinet ministers, politicians and journalists, the South China Morning Post reported. Presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi told reporters in Jakarta that the wiretapping could amount to "treason" and endanger the state, the paper said.
The Straits Times reported that the palace said the case may border on treason. Nikkei Asia also reported that officials said the alleged wiretapping could amount to treason, and described a case that "leans toward treason".
ABC News, the Australian public broadcaster, reported that police generals suspected of wiretapping the president's phones had been detained. Its headline referred to generals in the plural, while the accounts from Nikkei Asia, the Straits Times and the South China Morning Post named Listyo, the former national police chief, as the official sacked.
The South China Morning Post described the affair as one of the biggest scandals to hit the Indonesian National Police, known as Polri, and said it is testing Prabowo's alliance with his predecessor, Joko Widodo. Nikkei Asia said the case had fuelled cybersecurity and political concerns in Indonesia.
The reports did not say what charges Listyo could face or where he is being held, and carried no comment from him or his representatives.
How the reports differ
The South China Morning Post gave the fullest account of the surveillance itself, naming cabinet ministers, politicians and journalists as targets and quoting presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi by name, while Nikkei Asia and the Straits Times led on the sacking and the palace's talk of treason. ABC News reported that police generals, in the plural, had been detained over the wiretapping, where the other three accounts centred on Listyo alone. The South China Morning Post framed the affair as a test of Prabowo's alliance with former president Joko Widodo, a link the others did not make, and Nikkei Asia alone said the case had raised cybersecurity and political concerns.
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