TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Patrice Rio Capella has resigned as a cadre of the National Democrat (Nasdem) Party and a member of the House of Representatives (DPR) after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named him a suspect in a gratification case.

"I hereby announce my resignation both as members of the party and the parliament," he said in a press conference at the Office of the Nasdem Party Central Executive Board on Thursday.

Rio said he had discussed his resignation with Nasdem Chairman Surya Paloh and would leave the legal process of his case to his lawyer to follow it up.

Despite his resignation, he believed that the party which he had helped develop in the early days of its creation would continue to stick to its initial principles - to make reforms in all fields.

Earlier, the KPK has named Nasdem Secretary General Patrice Rio Capella as a suspect in the alleged case of corruption. He has been charged with receiving a bribe in the handling of legal cases related to social assistance, revenue sharing arrears and capital placement in several regional government-owned companies in North Sumatra.

"Investigators have come to the conclusion that there are two pieces of preliminary evidence pointing to an alleged corruption case allegedly involving GPN (Gatot Pudjo Nugroho) as the North Sumatra governor and ES (Evy Susanti) as private party. In the same case, investigators also have found two pieces of preliminary evidence which are enough to name PRC (Patrice Rio Capella) who is a DPR member as a suspect," acting deputy chief of KPK Johan Budi said at the KPK building.

ANTARA