Indonesian police said on Thursday that they have enough initial evidence to pursue treason charges against four suspects in a case involving the alleged wiretapping of President Prabowo Subianto.

The announcement marks the latest escalation in a scandal that has shaken Indonesia's police force and exposed a rift at the top of the country's politics. Police said they would now carry out intensive further investigations to develop the case, national police official Asep Safrudin told reporters in Jakarta.

Police have named four senior police officers as suspects in the case, including the former national police chief and Prabowo's chief of staff, Listyo Sigit Prabowo. The other three officers named in earlier reporting on the investigation are Ahrie Sonta Nasution, a former head of the National Police Legal Division; Eko Hadi Santoso, a senior instructor at the police education and training institute; and Slamet Uliandi, a senior officer who led the Criminal Investigation Agency's information and communications technology division.

What the police say happened

Investigators allege that the surveillance took place between 2025 and 2026 and that the targets included Prabowo and other public figures. The allegation is that senior officers authorised unlawful interception of the president's communications and unauthorised access to electronic data.

Prabowo's office has described the alleged operation as a possible act of treason. The police announcement on Thursday does not establish that the suspects committed treason. That is a matter for prosecutors and, ultimately, a court. The four men remain suspects, and no charges have been proven.

Listyo was known as a loyalist to former president Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, who backed Prabowo's rise to the presidency. The scandal has exposed deepening cracks between Prabowo and his predecessor and former backer, a relationship that once looked like one of the most durable partnerships in Indonesian politics.

Lawmakers demand answers on who ordered it

Lawmakers pressed the police for answers in a hearing on Thursday. Members of the House of Representatives' Commission III, which oversees law enforcement, met National Police Chief General Suyudi Ario Seto in Jakarta to examine the allegations of illegal surveillance targeting the president and other public figures.

In the hearing, lawmakers urged Suyudi to investigate who ultimately ordered Listyo to conduct the alleged wiretapping, and what political interests could be behind it. That question goes to the heart of the case: whether the alleged surveillance was the work of a small group of officers, or whether it was ordered from higher up.

The Commission III hearing was scheduled to run from 8.30am to noon in Jakarta. The committee has said it wants to question the police chief about the progress of the investigation and about how the alleged surveillance was able to continue undetected.

Why the case matters

The case is unusual because the suspects are not junior officers. They include a former national police chief who went on to become the president's chief of staff, a post he took up in October. That has raised questions about how the alleged operation was organised inside the police, and about the oversight of the force's most sensitive capabilities.

It also matters because of the political context. Prabowo took office after an election in which Jokowi's support was widely seen as decisive. The emergence of a wiretapping scandal involving a Jokowi loyalist, and the suggestion that the president himself was a target, has turned a police investigation into a test of the relationship between the two men.

For now, the police say the investigation will continue. Further steps, including any formal treason charges, will depend on the evidence gathered in the intensive investigation now under way. The case will be watched closely in Jakarta, where the question of who ordered the alleged wiretapping remains unanswered.

Sources: Reuters and Journos News.