Forest Fire Suspects Rise to 89, Bareskrim Begins Investigating Alleged Corporate Involvement
Jakarta – Enforcement against forest and land fire (karhutla) cases continues to be carried out by the Indonesian National Police. The number of suspects handled by the Directorate of Special Economic Crimes (Dittipidter) at Bareskrim has now risen to 89 people.
Director of Special Economic Crimes at Bareskrim, Brigadier General Moh. Irhamni, said there were an additional 17 suspects from the previous 72. All of the suspects are individuals.
“There are approximately 89 suspects,” he said on Friday, 28 August 2026.
As the number of suspects grows, police are also continuing to explore the possibility of other parties being involved in land burning practices. One avenue being investigated is the alleged involvement of corporations.
To date, investigators have received 189 police reports related to forest and land fire cases. From these reports, police are still gathering evidence to determine whether the burning was carried out on orders from or involved transactions with companies.
“For now they are still individuals, but we are trying to search for and trace evidence of whether there were orders or transactions involving corporations,” he said.
Irhamni stressed that investigators are not stopping at naming individual suspects. Police will continue to investigate the possibility of corporate parties giving orders or being involved in the burning.
According to him, enforcement will be carried out based on evidence found by investigators regardless of the background of the parties involved.
In addition to law enforcement, the National Police are also strengthening prevention measures so that forest and land fire cases do not continue to increase, especially amid prolonged dry conditions.
A total of 450 personnel from the Police Education and Training Institute (Lemdiklat) have been deployed to conduct education, outreach, and pre-emptive and preventive activities for the public.
“Yesterday approximately 450 personnel from the police education institution were sent to conduct counselling, outreach, pre-emptive and preventive activities so that the public understands the dangers of burning land and forest areas during prolonged dry seasons like this El Niño,” he said.
The National Police hope that the combination of law enforcement and prevention can reduce land burning practices, while preventing the spread of forest and land fire impacts during the dry season.
Previously, the National Police revealed that alleged land clearing practices by burning were one of the triggers of forest and land fires in several regions of Indonesia.