Antara
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has hinted that Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim would possibly be summoned as a witness to cases of bribes being offered to fill up positions in the ministry in 2018 and 2019. "The possibility is open as long as it is needed in the interest of the investigation, especially if there are some documents and money that were secured or confiscated from the room of the Religious Affairs Minister today," KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said at the KPK Building on Monday.

However, he could not confirm further when the minister would be called by his agency. "Later it will be informed again if there is a schedule," he said.

The KPK ransacked Saifuddin's office in the Ministry of Religious Affairs Building on Monday, and seized a sum of money in the form of rupiah and US dollars.

He said the rupiah seized was worth hundreds of millions, while the dollars are still being counted by the team at the location.

In addition to the ministry's workspace, the KPK also searched the ministry's Secretary General M Nur Kholis Setiawan, and head office of the Civil Service Bureau.

"A number of documents related to the staff selection process, both the stages and the results of the staffing selection, were also seized," said Diansyah.

In addition, he said, documents were also confiscated regarding the disciplinary sentence given to one of the suspects, Haris Hasanuddin, who was later elected as head of the East Java Regional Office of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

Regarding the money confiscated from the office, Diansyah said that he had no more technical information regarding this matter.

"What we can reveal is, of course, the update of the search process carried out today. In essence, we certainly conduct searches in locations where there is allegedly evidence relevant to the case being investigated at the time," he said.

For information, the KPK has named three suspects related to accepting bribes while filling positions in the Ministry of Religious Affairs in 2018 and 2019.

EDITED BY INE

Translator: Eliswan Azly
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2019