The fourth suspect is the officer who allegedly signed off on the taps

Police named a fourth suspect in the wiretapping case late on Thursday, and his job history is the point. They identified him only as SU, and local media named him as Slamet Uliandi. He was the monitoring chief at the police Criminal Investigation Agency from 2010 to 2019, then ran its information and technology unit from 2021 until this year. That put him in charge of the listening equipment itself. Investigators say the other suspects came to him for approval twice, before the taps and before the records were deleted. Cybercrime unit director Suhermanto described that sequence to reporters, Al Jazeera reports. SU has not been put in a cell because he is unwell.

The inquiry keeps growing. Police say they have now questioned 13 officers plus five criminal and technology experts, and the national police chief has set up a special team, according to spokesperson Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko. Police have still given no motive for listening to the president's calls. Jakarta itself was quiet on Thursday and Friday, with military tents and buses parked around the city but only small numbers of soldiers visible.

The sharper turn is in parliament. The case sits inside the split between President Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo, the predecessor who made Prabowo his continuity candidate for the 2024 election and whose son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, became vice president. Lawmakers are now considering an inquiry into Gibran's eligibility for the office, which could be a first step towards removing him. Al Jazeera notes that confidence among investors in the 1.5 trillion dollar economy has already weakened, alongside public unhappiness over the cost of Prabowo's welfare programmes.

Why it matters

A criminal case against four officers is one thing. An attempt to unseat a sitting vice president is another, and it would push this from a police matter into a constitutional one. That kind of fight tends to reach ordinary people through the rupiah first, which sets the price of imported food, fuel and medicine. If you passed sensitive information to officials in the past two years, remember what police are alleging here: the same person who waved the taps through also waved through erasing the proof of them.