Wire reporting: (AP, via Stuff)

Indonesian police have named three senior generals as suspects in an alleged illegal wiretapping operation that investigators say targeted President Prabowo Subianto and other public figures, as the military placed more than 20,000 troops and personnel on a Jakarta security deployment^2,3,6.

Police identified the suspects as Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, the former national police chief who had recently become presidential chief of staff; Insp. Gen. Ahrie Sonta Nasution, head of the National Police legal division; and Insp. Gen. Eko Hadi Santoso, a senior instructor at the police education institute^2,5.

Asep Safrudin, head of the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, said the three were being investigated for illegally intercepting communications, accessing electronic systems without authorization and deleting electronic data². He said the alleged tapping occurred in 2025 and 2026, while Listyo was police chief, and that numbers were entered into a lawful-interception system without the verification required under a 2010 police regulation².

Safrudin said investigators had questioned 10 witnesses and three experts and seized 11 mobile phones, an iPad and four flash drives^2,6. Coordinating Minister for Law Yusril Ihza Mahendra said investigators had found no indication of treason and that the suspects would be charged under statutes that can carry prison terms of up to 10 years².

State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, speaking at the palace, described the alleged tapping as an extraordinary case involving a handful of individuals and said it may amount to treason because sensitive information from a head of state's communications could endanger security and sovereignty^6,3. He said Listyo had been removed as chief of staff, a post he held for just over a month after leaving the police command on Oct. 1^5,6.

Neither the president nor the three suspects had responded publicly to the allegations in the accounts reviewed, and a spokesperson for the chief of staff's office could not be reached, according to the Associated Press².

Vice Adm. Yayan Sofiyan said the first phase on Monday involved about 2,100 personnel already in Jakarta, with thousands more due from outside the capital, for a planned total of 20,980, plus 13,140 on standby⁶. DW reported more than 20,000 troops and personnel in Jakarta as of Wednesday³. Maj. Gen. Muhammad Nas said the movement was standard procedure for maintaining national security; authorities did not officially confirm a link to the wiretapping case^3,6.

Adrianus Meliala, a University of Indonesia criminologist and former National Police Commission member, said, "No one expected Listyo Sigit Prabowo to be named a suspect"³. He said there was suspicion the tapping served interests other than the state or the police³. Ray Rangkuti, founder of democracy watchdog Lingkar Madani, told Arab News the operation was most likely politically driven⁶.

A Reuters report published Friday was titled as naming a fourth senior officer in the case; the full article could not be retrieved for this filing¹. Motive, the full list of people allegedly tapped, and whether the troop movement is connected to the investigation remain unconfirmed by officials^2,3,6.