Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Says Officials Involved in Online Gambling Have Been Monitored, Indicated to Have Suspicious Transactions

Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Nezar Patria said that a number of employees of the Ministry of Communication and Digital (Komdigi) who were suspected of being involved in online gambling (judol) cases had previously been under internal observation by his institution.

"Actually, those who were caught were also under internal observation, so we really appreciate the actions taken by the Police," said Nezar as reported by ANTARA, Sunday, November 4.

Based on internal observations in collaboration with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), said Nezar, a number of employees were found to have suspicious transactions.

"We found a number of employees who were indicated to have suspicious transactions in their accounts," he said.

A number of these employees, Nezar admitted, had been part of the team tasked with controlling content, especially related to negative content, including online gambling.

However, Nezar continued, they actually committed violations, including allowing online gambling sites to not be blocked.

"We know that their tasks, which were entrusted to them, they actually committed very serious violations in this matter," he said.

Nezar ensured that a number of the names of the individuals involved had been removed from the content control team before the police made the arrests.

"There were confessions that they were involved in judol, and this has been subject to sanctions," he said.

On that occasion, Nezar also clarified regarding the existence of a Komdigi expert staff who was said to be involved in the case.

"Not an expert staff actually. If it's an expert staff, it's structural in the ministry. This might be a kind of expert whose supervision was requested by the team leader," explained Nezar.

The arrest of the suspect in the case, according to him, shows good collaboration between Komdigi and the Police in eradicating judol.

Therefore, his party stated that they fully support the Police's steps to thoroughly investigate the judol network from upstream to downstream.

Komdigi, continued Nezar, is still waiting for the results of the police investigation, including allegations related to certain employees in his institution.

"We hope that this network can continue to be investigated, dismantled until those behind it can be found," said Nezar Patria.

Previously, the Directorate of General Criminal Investigation of the Jakarta Metro Police had examined 14 suspects who were arrested in connection with an online gambling case involving individuals at Komdigi.

Of the 14 suspects, 11 were from the Komdigi Ministry and three were civilians.