JAKARTA, Nov 4 — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has sacked his chief of staff Listyo Sigit Prabowo for what his office said could be treason, a day after his arrest with two top police officers on suspicion of wiretapping the President, Cabinet ministers, and others.
Listyo, who is not a relative of Prabowo, was among three serving police officers detained and accused of illegally tapping the phones of the President, journalists, politicians, business people, and more from 2025 to this year.
He served as national police chief for five years before becoming the President's chief of staff last month.
"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.
"It also tends toward acts that endanger state interests and the safety of the nation's leadership, including the safety of the head of state," presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi told the media in announcing the sacking today.
Prabowo under pressure
The arrests come as Prabowo faces challenges on multiple fronts, from a slumping approval rating amid discontent over his policies to a battle to restore investor confidence amid record stock market selloffs, a declining currency, and warnings of an equities market downgrade by index provider MSCI.
Senior Minister for Legal Affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra said that the government has yet to determine the motive for the wiretapping.
Late yesterday, the police said the suspects were being investigated for unlawful wiretaps on the President, state officials, media, politicians, business people, and leaders of mass organisations and non-governmental groups.
They orchestrated the wiretaps without a formal request from investigators and had last month ordered electronic records of their monitoring activities be deleted. Police initially identified the suspects only by their initials.
Local media named the other two as Ahrie Sonta Nasution, head of national police legal division, and Eko Hadi Santoso, a senior officer at the national police educational institution.
Reuters could not immediately contact the three suspects or their lawyers.
Singapore's Yusof Ishak Institute visiting senior fellow and political analyst Yanuar Nugroho said the chief of staff role under Prabowo had diminished in importance, and Listyo may have been given the job to take him away from the crucial post of national police chief.
He added that Prabowo needs a police chief he can trust and Listyo "is not the one", noting that Listyo was known as a loyalist of former president Joko Widodo.
