Silmy Karim Allegedly Received Bribe Money Since Serving as Director General
The Deputy Minister of Immigration and Correctional Services, Silmy Karim, is alleged to have received bribes since his tenure as the Director General of Immigration. Silmy has officially been detained by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) regarding a corruption case involving residence permits for foreign nationals.
Silmy served as the Director General of Immigration from January 2023 to October 2024, before being appointed Deputy Minister on 21 October 2024. “The receipt of money occurred while the individual was serving as Director General,” stated KPK Spokesperson Budi Prasetyo at the KPK Red and White Building in Jakarta on Thursday.
In addition to Silmy Karim, the KPK has named seven other suspects in the alleged extortion case within the Directorate General of Immigration, involving sums of money estimated to reach tens of billions of rupiah. On 3 June 2026, the KPK conducted a sting operation (OTT) at the Class I Special Non-TPI Immigration Office in West Jakarta, related to the processing of stay permits, specifically Permanent Stay Permits (KITAP) and Limited Stay Permits (KITAS).
From that operation, the KPK arrested 17 individuals, consisting of eight civil servants and nine private sector individuals acting as intermediaries in immigration document processing. The detainees include the Head of the Class I Special Non-TPI Immigration Office West Jakarta, Ronald Arman Abdullah; the Head of the West Java Immigration Regional Office, Jaya Saputra; and the Acting Director General of Immigration, Saffar Muhammad Godam.
The case involving Silmy Karim is an expansion of the initial sting operation. He surrendered himself to the KPK in the early hours of 3 June 2026.
The KPK clarified that the placement of police lines at the residence of Deputy Minister Silmy Karim was not a search, but a sealing of the premises for the purposes of the investigation into the KITAS corruption case. Following an interrogation lasting over 10 hours, the KPK officially named him a suspect. Silmy Karim surrendered to the KPK on Wednesday night, 3 June 2026, after being implicated in the corruption scandal involving foreign national stay permits.