Ombudsman Ethics Board Probes Hery Susanto as Selection Panel Admits Oversight

The Ombudsman’s Ethics Board has begun a review of Hery Susanto, the former chair of the Ombudsman RI, who has been named a suspect in a corruption case by the Attorney General’s Office (Kejaksaan Agung) on Friday, 22 May. As part of the process, the Ethics Board also requested statements from the Selection Committee for the 2026-2031 Ombudsman RI (ORI) candidates. The panel said it did not know that Hery Susanto had a prior legal record. ‘So, if I did not see it perhaps Mr Munafrizal (Deputy Chair of the Selection Panel) saw it or others, but this truly none of us saw and then presented it as a concern to be considered in the decision-making relating to the person in question,’ said Prof. Erwan Agus Purwanto, Chairman of the ORI 2026-2031 Selection Panel, at an open session of the Ombudsman RI Ethics Board in Jakarta on Friday. He said the panel had previously sought information from the public and stakeholders about the candidates for Ombudsman, including Hery Susanto. Among them were the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN). The information, he added, was subsequently clarified by panel members before deciding to choose Hery as a candidate. Moreover, he noted, they also received a recommendation from the previous ORI chair. In addition to responses from the public and the track records of competent bodies, the panel actively conducted coverage of reporting in print and online media. ‘The information we obtained from various sources about Mr Hery Susanto did not indicate that he has a legal case,’ he said. While no indication of a legal violation was found, Erwan acknowledged there were some reports concerning Hery’s character or personality. He said that, based on public reports, there were assessments that Hery had a hard and quick temper with subordinates within the office. ‘So it was more about his personality than issues of integrity,’ Erwan stated. Previously, the Attorney General’s Office named Hery Susanto as a suspect in a case of alleged criminal acts in the governance of nickel mining activities from 2013 to 2025. The Director of Investigations for the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi said Hery carried out this alleged crime while serving as a member of the Ombudsman RI for the 2021-2026 period. ‘The designation as a suspect was made after investigators obtained sufficient evidence through a series of investigations, searches, and other measures,’ he told reporters at the Jampidsus Building, Kejaksaan Agung, Jakarta, Thursday (16 April). In that case, Hery is suspected of receiving a bribe amounting to Rp1.5 billion from PT TSHI, which began when PT TSHI faced issues with calculating non-tax state revenue (PNBP) by the Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut). Subsequently, PT TSHI sought a way out through collusion with Hery Susanto, then a Commissioner of Ombudsman RI. To carry this out, he said, Hery received money from LKM, who was the director of PT TSHI.