Indonesian police on Monday transferred the criminal case file of Febrie Adriansyah, the former Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes, to the Attorney General’s Office for formal prosecution, the state news agency Antara reported.
The file transfer comes after authorities on Saturday formally named Adriansyah a suspect in a sweeping corruption and money laundering investigation that is part of a much larger, highly sensitive investigation launched in the wake of crippling, widespread power outages that plunged large swaths of the country into darkness in June.
Central to the probe are suspected procurement irregularities involving critical coal supplies intended for state-owned power plants. Investigators allege that the scheme caused state losses of approximately 5 trillion rupiah—nearly $278 million—and directly starved the energy sector of fuel, triggering the widespread rolling blackouts that have recently plagued the country.
With the file officially transferred, state prosecutors are expected to issue a new investigation warrant targeting their former colleague, according to Tempo, an Indonesian investigative outlet and partner of OCCRP.
The handover caps a tumultuous week for Adriansyah, who resigned on Saturday shortly after admitting that a luxury estate raided by federal investigators days earlier was indeed his private residence. The spoils of that raid were staggering: authorities recovered 74 kilograms of gold and more than $15 million in cash of various foreign currencies—a total haul valued at approximately 476 billion rupiah (roughly $29.6 million).
The decision to allow the Attorney General’s Office to prosecute one of its own former leaders has raised immediate, sharp concerns over potential conflicts of interest. However, senior government officials have defended the transfer as a pragmatic step designed to streamline a complex, high-priority case.
“From a procedural legal standpoint, the case can be resolved more quickly if the Attorney General's Office conducts the investigation,” Yusril Ihza Mahendra, the Coordinating Minister for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correction, said on Monday.
Yusril acknowledged the public’s deep skepticism regarding whether the agency can impartially investigate such a high-profile insider. Still, he insisted that the institution would maintain its integrity, promising that investigators and prosecutors would work "carefully, objectively, and in accordance with the law."
But as the investigation deepens, it has also drawn the Indonesian military into a growing constitutional debate. Following the raid on Adriansyah’s home, heavily armed military personnel were spotted patrolling the perimeter of the residence—a deployment that drew swift condemnation from civil society groups.
In comments published by Tempo, Usman Hamid, the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, warned that the military's presence threatened "civilian supremacy, the rule of law, and human rights." Hamid argued that the deployment could easily be interpreted as a blatant attempt to shield corrupt officials and intimidate the civilian investigators tasked with bringing them to justice.
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