Power and Politics Beyond Papua Governor Arrest

The government developed a legal case against Papua Governor Lukas Enembe. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) initially named Lukas Enembe a suspect in a corruption case after he received Rp 1 billion in gratuity from a person named Prijatono Lakka. However, he denied the accusations because the money was his personal funds to purchase furnishings for his house. Prijatono also made a similar confession to the KPK that the money belonged to Lukas.

However, the KPK and PPATK, the Indonesian financial intelligence unit, have charged Lukas with money laundering following suspicious transactions to casinos abroad valued at Rp 560 billion. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said the government had blocked several accounts belonging to Lukas. "The value of blocked accounts has reached Rp 71 billion," he said on Sept 19.

Besides these two cases, Lukas is also being targeted in several other cases, such as allegations of corruption in the management of Papua's special autonomy funds and the budget for the 20th National Sports Week (PON) in 2021. Stefanus Roy Rening, Lukas' lawyer, said his client had been targeted since 2017, related to the central government's request to seat their candidate as Deputy Governor of Papua.