Jakarta. Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny Plate was detained by prosecutors on Wednesday in a rare move by the Attorney General’s Office to implicate an active cabinet member with corruption charges.

Johnny was charged with bribery related to the project to procure telecommunication towers and internet infrastructure in the Information and Telecommunication Accessibility Agency, or BAKTI, which is under the ministry led by Johnny.

“We conclude that there is enough evidence to declare that he [Johnny] was involved in a corruption scandal related to BTS [base transceiver station] and 4G internet infrastructure projects in his capacity as the budget guarantor and a minister,” AGO Investigation Director Kuntadi told reporters at his office in South Jakarta.

“Investigators today altered his status from a witness to a suspect and he will be detained for the next 20 days at the AGO’s detention facility in Salemba.”

Johnny, already dressed in a detainee vest with both hands cuffed, kept silent when he walked out of the AGO building and was escorted by prosecutors to a waiting detention vehicle.

Kuntadi added that as he was speaking, an AGO team was searching Johnny’s official residence and office in Jakarta to get more evidence.

Reporters at the scene also saw prosecutors conducting a search on a Toyota SUV that carried Johnny to the AGO when the minister was inside for interrogation. A prosecutor took cell phones and a wallet from the Toyota Fortuner.

Earlier this week, state auditors claimed that the fraudulent procurement projects in BAKTI have inflicted a financial loss of Rp 8 trillion ($538 million) on the state between 2020 and 2022.

"The process to calculate the estimated state loss involved audits, analyses, and evaluations on data and documents,” State Development Finance Controller (BPKP) Head Muhammad Yusuf Ateh said on Monday.

Yusuf added his team also conducted observations at several locations and interviewed experts and related parties before calculating the financial loss from the graft scandal.

"We informed the attorney general that we have concluded an estimated state loss of Rp 8,032,084,133,795," Yusuf said.

Johnny’s naming of the suspect came two months after prosecutors said that his younger brother Gregorius Alex Plate returned Rp 534 million ($35,000) in cash he allegedly took from BAKTI to prosecutors after the graft investigation was underway.

A prosecutor said the payment by BAKTI raised suspicions because Gregorius “has no formal ties to the ministry”.

While several active ministers in current and previous administrations have been arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission or KPK, Johnny is arguably the first one to be detained by the AGO.