Indonesia Prabowo Subianto EU Corruption Investigation
Story by Jhon William • 7h
A dodgy deal with Qatar involving used Mirage fighter jets could threaten the political career of Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s Defence Minister, who is currently leading in the polls for the country’s upcoming presidential election. The deal valued at $792m with an EU registered company sparked global investigations after several whistleblowers have come forward.
The election to be held next week on Feb 14th will be crucial for the world’s third-largest democracy, as Prabowo tries for a third time to win the presidency.
On his two earlier unsuccessful attempts, Prabowo’s campaigns were plagued by allegations of human rights abuses during his tenure as a Special Forces commander in the 1990s. This time around, he has cosied up to the outgoing president Joko Widodo, even naming the president’s son Gibran Rakabuming as his running mate.
The fighter deal
Yet it is Prabowo’s track record as Defence Minister since 2019 that now threatens his campaign. Questions have been raised about a fighter jet deal that Prabowo struck in January 2023 for Indonesia to pay $792 million for 12 Mirage 2000-5 aircraft previously used by the Qatari Air Force.
According to Indonesia’s Defence Ministry, the deal was signed with Excalibur International a.s., a unit of Czech defence company Czechoslovak Group (CSG), owned by the Strnad family. The planes would be delivered by January 2025.
It is not clear how old the Qatar Air Force planes are, but according to the website of manufacturer Dassault Aviation, the first Mirage 2000s flew in the 1980s. Despite the Mirage 2000-5 no longer being in production, Indonesia’s Defence ministry claimed the planes would come with three years of support service and pilot training.
$792 million instead of $0?
The $792 million price agreed by Prabowo works out to $66 million per jet – a large amount for planes that Qatar had earlier offered for free in 2009. Indonesia’s Defence Minister at the time, Juwono Sudarsono, declined the offer because the maintenance costs would have been expensive.
The fact that Prabowo has now got Indonesia to pay $792 million for the same planes – now 15 years older – has outraged several Indonesian lawmakers.
"What is so urgent that we had to buy used and old jets?" asked lawmaker Tubagus Hasanuddin, according to the newspaper Kompas.
Retired Major General TB Hasanuddin, Member of Commission I of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), pointed out that Indonesia should have instead gone for the newer Mirage 2000-9 aircraft offered by the United Arab Emirates, which were also up for sale.
With so many questions unanswered, the Indonesian government put the deal on hold in January.
The Investigation
So why was Prabowo so keen on buying overpriced old planes from Qatar? From the 1990s to 2007, Dassault Aviation sold Mirage 2000s for between $23 million to $35 million each. Yet Prabowo had agreed to $66 million each for aging aircraft.
Sometimes when an inflated price is paid for an asset, there is corruption involved. That was the starting point for us to look in greater detail at this deal. Prabowo ensured that Qatar got an extra sweet deal that it did not get in 2009. Why?
The Qatar question
We put this question to a source who knows the Qataris well. He pointed out that Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are in constant competition, for influence and reach. So, when Prabowo went to the United Arab Emirates to inquire for their Mirage fighter planes, the Qataris got wind of it and decided to offer him an even better deal.
They knew that Prabowo was interested in standing for president again, so when he visited Doha in January 2023, they offered him the Mirages along with a 7 percent cut from the deal to fund his election campaign. This, according to anonymous sources agreeing to speak on condition of anonymity, was agreed to personally by the Qatari Minister of State for Defense Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah. That 7 percent kickback works out to $55.4 million, more than enough to bankroll Prabowo’s presidential campaign. According to multiple whistleblowers, Prabowo was given the first $20 million in cash on a private jet at Doha airport.
Prabowo owes a favour
So why would Qatar pay kickbacks to a presidential candidate in Indonesia? Our source said the Qataris see it is an investment for the future and is similar to their approach in other parts of Asia and Africa. If Prabowo goes on to win the election, our source said, the Qataris could count on the Indonesian president to return the favour whenever required.
EU Anti Corruption
The European anti-corruption body, The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), reportedly sent a cable to the US Embassy in Jakarta on January 25. It states that a European Investigative Order (EIO) has opened an investigation against the Czech company over the fighter deal.
This is part of a wider investigation into Qatar buying influence among members of the European Parliament to promote its interests. The cable requested the US State Department’s assistance in their investigation into the “corruption within Indonesian Ministry of Defence, and especially in relation to Qatar.” We have seen a copy of the cable, which cannot be independently verified.
Whats next?
Our source said the Qataris are livid that the fighter deal has been put on hold. The negative media coverage of the deal has also shown Qatar in a bad light. Yet Prabowo himself has got off rather lightly, with only a few questions raised in one of the presidential debates.
It is possible that the revelations from our investigation lead to Prabowo’s track record as Defence Minister being scrutinised in greater detail. The Indonesian public deserve to know the truth before they head to the polls on February 14th so that they can be better informed when they vote.
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