Indonesia – treason within: Jakarta sacks and arrests Prabowo’s chief of staff over alleged wiretapping

- Indonesia’s former police chief, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, was dismissed from his role as presidential chief of staff and arrested on charges potentially amounting to treason for allegedly wiretapping President Prabowo Subianto’s telephone.
- Authorities claim the unauthorized surveillance, which included tapping officials, politicians, journalists, and business figures, posed a danger to national security.
- The motive behind the wiretapping remains unclear, while the president has expressed significant concern over the case.

“What was done may have fallen into the category of being considered as leading to treason,” presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi told reporters in Jakarta of Tuesday’s arrest of Listyo Sigit Prabowo.
On Tuesday, the national police announced it had arrested Listyo and two other senior officers for allegedly tapping the phone of President Prabowo Subianto, government officials and politicians, journalists, NGO representatives and businesspeople.
Top detective Asep Safrudin said this was done “without any legal basis or without any investigative or inquiry process in accordance with applicable laws”.
Prabowo, who took office in 2024, has come under increasing pressure for his government’s handling of the economy and destructive wildfires in the Southeast Asian archipelago.
Listyo had until then served as national police chief during the period of the alleged wiretapping that investigators said started in 2025.
On Wednesday, Prasetyo said the reason for the wiretap was not yet known.
“When we talk about the head of state… there is a great deal of information there that is naturally very sensitive, which could endanger… the interests and the strength of the nation and the state,” he said.
Prasetyo added the president had expressed his “profound concern” about the case.




