Yogyakarta (ANTARA) – Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Nezar Patria stated that ministry employees recently apprehended by the police for their suspected involvement in online gambling syndicates had been under internal monitoring.
During his visit to Gadjah Mada University here on Sunday, he mentioned that monitoring conducted in collaboration with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) had revealed discrepancies in the financial transactions of some ministry staff.
“Those apprehended had been under our internal monitoring, and we commend the police for their actions,” Patria said.
“We discovered that some staff engaged in suspicious financial transactions from their bank accounts,” he added.
He noted that the staff members were part of the team authorized to conduct online monitoring and block web pages affiliated with online gambling. However, they failed to control online gambling activities and instead became involved in and protected it.
Patria affirmed that the implicated staff had been penalized and reassigned to other units prior to their eventual apprehension by the police.
Meanwhile, the deputy minister refuted reports that an advisor to the ministry was among those arrested for involvement in online gambling syndicates. “He was likely only an expert asked to supervise the work by his team leader,” he stated.
The arrest of the ministry’s staff, he said, reflected collaboration and a unified goal between the ministry and the police in eradicating online gambling that harms people’s lives.
“We expect the (online gambling syndicate) network will be eradicated, and those behind them will be found,” Patria affirmed.
The Jakarta Metropolitan Police arrested 14 suspects on Friday (November 1), including 11 staff members from the Communications and Digital Ministry, in Bekasi, West Java, as part of an online gambling investigation.
On the same day, the police conducted a search at the ministry’s office in Jakarta related to the case, retrieving multiple containers filled with evidence.
In response to the arrests of her ministry staff, Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid expressed her support for law enforcement efforts to eliminate online gambling practices within her ministry.
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Translator: Luqman Hakim, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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