Jakarta. Bogor District Head Ade Munawaroh Yasin was arrested late Tuesday by the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, the same agency that ended the term of her predecessor and elder brother Rachmat Yasin also for a corruption scandal.

Ade was arrested overnight along with several district officials, auditors, and businessmen, KPK spokesman Ali Fikri said in a virtual news conference on Wednesday.

“The operation was conducted over bribery allegation,” Ali said.

Investigators seized banknotes and other items as evidence from the scene, Ali said without going into details.

The KPK typically revealed information about their preliminary investigations in major cases after officially naming suspects within the 24-hour limit of the initial custody.

For residents in Bogor District, a different administrative area from the neighboring city of Bogor which is led by a mayor, the arrest invites a sense of deja vu.

Ade’s brother was arrested by the KPK in 2014 for taking Rp 4.5 billion in bribe money from property developers in the district and was found guilty by the court and sentenced to five and a half years later that year.

Rachmat, who was supposed to lead the district for another four years, was succeeded by his deputy because of his criminal conviction until younger sister Ade won the 2018 district head election and took the district government's top post back to the family.

The brother was freed from prison in mid-2019 after several sentence cuts but it wouldn’t take long until the KPK rearrested him for allegedly collecting illegal payments from the district government task force amounting to Rp 8.9 billion.

He is accused of using the money to finance his reelection campaign in 2013-14.

Rachmat was also accused of receiving 20 hectares of land from businessmen in return for the district government approval for a new boarding Islamic school project. 

A court in Bandung found him guilty of the latest charges and sentenced him to 32 months in prison.

Ade is the fourth regional government leader to be arrested by the KPK so far this year, after Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi, North Penajam Paser District Head Abdul Gafur Mas'ud, and Langkat District Head Terbit Rencana Perangin-angin.

Since the agency came into operation to tackle the country’s rampant corruption, at least 22 governors and 148 district heads or mayors have been arrested for corruption charges.