Indonesia's anti-graft chief declared suspect

JAKARTA, May 4 -- Jakarta Police on Monday declared head of Indonesia's powerful Corruption Eradication Commission Antasari Azhar as a suspect on a mafia-style murder case against an executive, Jakarta police chief Wahyono said here.

The police chief told a press conference as Azhar has been questioned by the police at his office since Monday morning.

"At the beginning of the question (on Azhar) today he is as a witness, then it will be continued in which he is as a suspect," Wahyono said.

But he did not elaborate the motive and the role of Azhar on the assassination of Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, an executive with a state-owned pharmaceutical company.

"He (Azhar) is being questioned now, all would be found after the question," said Wahyono, who goes to a single name like many Indonesians.

Wahyono said that the case involved 9 suspects and 8 of them had been detained. He declined to elaborate whether Azhar would be detained after the question.

A travel ban has been imposed on Azhar before his interrogation days ago. The Corruption Eradication Commission is one of Indonesia's most respected institutions, an independent body established by the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration to combat rampant corruption.

The commission has sent scores of high profile figures, from officials, former minister and active central bank governor to jails, the first ever in the history of the country, boosting investor confidence.

But, the commission's reputation took a hit when the Attorney General Office on Friday said that Azhar was the suspected "brains" behind the murder of Zulkarnaen.

Zulkarnaen was shot in the head in his car by a motorcycle-riding gunman on March 14.

The work of Azhar was taken over by the co-chairman of the commission.