Former South Sulawesi Governor Wins Pretrial Motion in Pineapple Seed Corruption Case

The Makassar District Court has granted a pretrial motion filed by former South Sulawesi acting governor Bahtiar Baharuddin after he was named a suspect in an alleged corruption case involving pineapple seedlings worth Rp60 billion by South Sulawesi High Prosecutor’s Office investigators. In the pretrial hearing, the judge declared the determination of Bahtiar’s suspect status invalid, ordering investigators to release him from detention. “The suspect designation is annulled, invalid and not binding. His detention was also declared unlawful, so investigators are ordered to release him from custody,” said Bahtiar’s legal counsel, Irwan Muin, after the hearing on Monday (29/6). Irwan added that the judge also ordered Bahtiar to be freed from the investigation process in the case that was the subject of the pretrial motion. “In essence, the pretrial motion was granted and he is freed,” he stated. Irwan said his team is currently awaiting the official copy of the ruling, as the verdict had been read out in court. “The verdict is that the suspect’s detention is annulled. We are waiting for the official copy,” he explained. Previously, South Sulawesi High Prosecutor’s Office investigators had named former South Sulawesi acting governor Bahtiar Baharuddin a suspect in a case of alleged corruption in the procurement of pineapple seedlings at the Food Crops, Horticulture and Plantation Office in 2024, with a budget reaching Rp60 billion. “Today’s detention is the first, with the initials BB, the former acting governor of South Sulawesi,” said South Sulawesi High Prosecutor Didik Farkhan Alisyahdi to reporters on Monday (9/3). Besides the former acting governor, prosecutors also named five other suspects: HS, a member of the acting governor’s support team; RRS, a civil servant from the Takalar regency administration who was also an activity implementer; RM, director of PT AM as the provider; and RE, director of PT CAP as the activity implementer. “In addition to these five suspects, the investigative team has also named one other suspect with the initials UN, who served as the Budget User Authority/Commitment Making Officer. However, he did not attend our summons today due to illness,” he said. In this case, Didik stated that based on calculations by the Development Finance Comptroller, state losses from the budget for procuring 4 million pineapple seedlings were identified. “Approximately Rp50 billion, we have calculated with BPKP, and it will be released soon,” he said.