Attorney General's Office designates PT TSHI owner as suspect in Southeast Sulawesi nickel corruption case

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has designated LS, the owner and President Director of PT TSHI, as a new suspect in the case of alleged criminal corruption in the governance of nickel mining operations in Southeast Sulawesi (Sultra) from 2013 to 2025.

The Head of the Legal Information Centre (Kapuspenkum) of Kejagung, Anang Supriatna, stated when met in Jakarta on Tuesday that the suspect designation came after investigators from the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) arrested LS on Monday (11/5) evening, as he had repeatedly ignored summons from investigators.

“The individual was properly summoned and did not comply, failing to appear. Subsequently, the investigation team carried out a forced summons, and the individual was arrested at one of his residences in South Jakarta and immediately examined as a witness,” he said.

After being examined as a witness, investigators immediately designated LS as a suspect based on evidence, including witness statements, expert testimony, and other evidence.

For examination purposes, LS was immediately detained at the Salemba Detention Centre Branch of the Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday in the early hours.

“Regarding this individual with initials LS, detention has been imposed for investigation purposes for the next 20 days,” he stated.

Previously, Kejagung had designated the inactive Chairman of the Indonesian Ombudsman RI, Hery Susanto, as a suspect in the alleged criminal corruption case in the governance of nickel mining operations in Sultra from 2013 to 2025.

“So, at the time the individual was a Commissioner of the Indonesian Ombudsman RI. This incident occurred in 2025, and there was a receipt of money; for now, we have detected around Rp1.5 billion,” said the Director of Investigation (Dirdik) of Jampidsus Kejagung, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi.

Syarief explained that the corruption incident began when PT TSHI faced issues regarding the calculation of non-tax state revenue (PNBP) by the Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut).

Then, PT TSHI sought a solution by colluding with Hery Susanto, who was a Commissioner of the Indonesian Ombudsman RI at the time.

To carry out this, he said, Hery received approximately Rp1.5 billion.