INDONESIA'S fight against corruption has taken a dramatic new turn with the arrest of an in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

INDONESIA'S fight against corruption has taken a dramatic new turn with the arrest of an in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a 100 billion rupiah ($12.85 million) fraud case.Former Bank Indonesia deputy governor Aulia Pohan had been named as a suspect by the powerful Corruption Eradication Commission last month, but was only taken into custody on Thursday night. His detention, at the Jakarta headquarters of Indonesia's Brimob paramilitary police unit, has upped the stakes considerably in the fight against Indonesian corruption, on which Dr Yudhoyono has staked his presidency. Mr Pohan's daughter Annisa and the President's son, Agus Harimurti, are married. Dr Yudhoyono has received praise for the way he has stood back from the case, even as there were growing calls for his in-law's arrest, reaching as far as the grassroots level of a graffiti campaign on the streets of Jakarta. The former banker is alleged to have been behind the disbursements of 31.5 billion rupiah to parliamentarians considering new banking laws in 2003. His lawyer, Syafardi, told The Weekend Australian yesterday Mr Pohan had resisted calling in special favours from Dr Yudhoyono after being arrested. "He understands his position -- he never uses the power of others, he accepts this situation, that's why he's going through with this," Mr Syafardi said. "In his mind, what he did at the time was for the good of the nation: with the crisis that was happening at the time, the role of the bank was significant and the policy that was taken was intended to break the crisis." Indonesia's central bank has been under investigation for lending billions of dollars in emergency funding to cash-stricken banks during the 1997-98 currency crisis, without adequate guarantees of repayment. The remainder of the 100billion rupiah in the case for which Mr Pohan has been arrested was spent defending bank executives involved in the disbursements, during a time when he was operations manager at a special liquidity fund established by the central bank.
Former Bank Indonesia governor Burhanuddin Abdullah was sentenced last month to five years' jail over the same scandal, while former legal officer Oey Hoey Tiong and another former executive, Rusli Simanjuntak, are each serving four years. Mr Pohan faces up to 20 years' jail and a 1 billion rupiah fine if he is convicted. He was upbeat on his arrest, quipping: "How can I say I am not ready for detention?" Three other former deputy governors were also arrested. The head of the Corruption Eradication Commission, Antasari Azhar, warned that the four were probably not the last in the case. "It is possible there are others involved," Mr Azhar said, adding that the arrest should "answer the public's doubts" about his preparedness to go after such a well-connected figure. Dr Yudhoyono did not comment specifically on the arrest yesterday, brushing off reporters' questions with the retort: "Why are you asking me?" However, his spokesman, Andi Mallarangeng, said that the President's position on the affair remained unchanged from the public statement he made one month ago. "In a personal capacity, as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, when I hear all these things, frankly I am quite sad," the Indonesian leader said at the time. "But on the other hand, as head of state and head of government, I am of the view that law and justice must be enforced." The arrests coincided with that of a controlling shareholder in the ailing Bank Century, which was taken over by the Government last week after its capital reserves took a battering amid the global financial crisis. Robert Tantular is accused of hiding his bank's assets in offshore accounts, prompting questions about how effectively Indonesia's finance system has been reformed since the crisis that brought the country to its knees a decade ago.