Indonesia’s president sacks chief of staff over alleged wiretapping

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto dismissed his chief of staff on Wednesday for alleged treason. The dismissal came a day after the chief of staff, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, was arrested alongside two other senior police officers on suspicion of wiretapping the president, cabinet members, and other individuals from 2025 to the present.

Listyo, who had served as national police chief for five years before assuming the role of chief of staff last month, was among the three individuals detained in connection with the alleged wiretapping.

President Prabowo's spokesman, Prasetyo Hadi, stated that the sacking was due to the actions being considered treason, endangering state interests, and threatening the safety of the nation's leadership, including the head of state. The motive behind the wiretapping remains unclear, according to Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia's senior minister for legal affairs.

The suspects, who were initially identified only by their initials, were under investigation for unlawful wiretaps targeting the president, state officials, media, politicians, businesspeople, and leaders of mass organizations and non-governmental groups. They had conducted the wiretaps without obtaining proper legal authorization and had subsequently ordered the deletion of electronic records of their monitoring activities.

Political analyst Yanuar Nugroho, a senior fellow at Singapore's Yusof Ishak Institute, suggested that Listyo's tenure as chief of staff may have been a strategic move by President Prabowo to distance himself from the crucial role of national police chief. Nugroho noted that the position of chief of staff under President Prabowo had become less significant and that Listyo, known as a loyalist of former President Joko Widodo, was not the ideal choice for the position.