Jakarta. Chief Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD will temporarily take over Communications Minister Johnny G Plate’s post after the latter got detained for graft.

“We have appointed the Chief Security Minister to be the acting [communications minister],” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told reporters in Jakarta on Friday shortly before departing for Japan’s G7 Summit. 

Jokowi said the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) would be professional and transparent in handling the case. The comment came after reporters asked if there was political intervention in Johnny's graft probe.

“We must respect the due process of law,” Jokowi said. 

The AGO recently named Johnny as a suspect in an alleged graft case related to a base transceiver station (BTS) tower project. The case corruption caused a loss worth Rp 8 trillion ($536 million) to the state exchequer. 

Johnny also becomes the first active minister to be named a graft suspect by the AGO. The AGO will detain Johnny at the Salemba prison for 20 days. Johnny is a top politician of the National Democratic Party (Nasdem) which has picked former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to run in the 2024 presidential race.

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