Indonesia minister quits over Haj fraud

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s religious affairs minister resigned Monday after being accused of misusing funds that were supposed to help Muslim pilgrims.
The anti-corruption agency last week named Suryadharma Ali a suspect in its investigation into alleged graft in the organization of Haj in 2012-13.
The agency previously said it had detected suspicious transactions of around $20 million in a special Haj fund, which is a combination of government money and cash from people who plan to make the pilgrimage.
The allegations have caused outrage in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, where millions have paid in to the fund and must wait years as the annual quota of Haj pilgrims is strictly controlled.
Ali is the latest figure close to outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to be ensnared in a corruption case. The scandal also threatens to tarnish presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, whom Ali’s Islamic party is backing at forthcoming elections.
The minister insisted he would not resign over the allegations, but changed his mind after a meeting with Yudhoyono on Monday.
“Suryadharma Ali returned to the president the title of religion minister that had been entrusted to him,” state secretary Sudi Silalahi told reporters after the meeting at the presidential palace in Bogor, outside Jakarta.
He said the president had “asked him to file a written resignation in one or two days.” Silalahi added that Ali continued to insist that “he was not in the wrong” during the meeting.
Anti-corruption investigators have said they are probing irregularities in the overall cost of Haj, accommodation for pilgrims, and the people selected to go on the pilgrimage.