TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the man who died in North Edinburg Avenue, Los Angeles, the United States, was electronic identity card (e-KTP) graft case key witness Johannes Marliem. “Local authorities are investigating the causes and the incidents before the death,” Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told Tempo yesterday.

Marliem reportedly died at 2 am on Thursday. The cause of the death is still unconfirmed: suicide or being shot dead by the police who had surrounded his house since Wednesday afternoon. Los Angeles local media reported that the police had blocked the roads leading to Marliem’s house at North Edinburg Avenue No. 623 after receiving a report of an armed robbery in which Marliem’s family was held hostage.

Read: Johannes Marliem, Key Witness in E-KTP Grat Case, Dead in U.S.

LA Times reported on Thursday that one day before the witness’ death, a federal agent received a search warrant for the same address. Zigmund Gron, Marliem’s neighbor, also revealed that the house was broken into by a burglar a week before.

Marliem, who had been regularly contacting Tempo since late April, also confirmed the burglary two weeks ago. He said that the incident took place during the day by an armed man. “For 14 years of living in the United States, I had never been robbed,” Marliem said. “My life is in danger.”

Marliem refused to elaborate the details of the incident. “Things could get worse, let’s wait for the investigation,” he said.

He did not want it to cloud investigation into e-KTP graft case by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). As the provider of an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) used in the e-KTP project, Marliem had been involved in the Rp5.84 trillion project since its deliberations on 2010.

Earlier in July, Merliem told Tempo that he recorded all conversations with individuals involved in the project for four years. He said that the 500 gigabytes recording could be used by the KPK to prosecute corruptors in the project that caused Rp2.3 trillion in state losses. Marliem had been questioned twice by the KPK, in February in Singapore and last month in the US.

The KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah declined to comment on Johannes Marliem’s death and the burglary report. “We shall wait until local authorities deliver a clear report of the incident,” he said yesterday. The KPK deputy chief Saut Situmorang on the weekend said that the agency has cooperated with the US authorities to find out the details on incidents that happened from Wednesday to Thursday last week.

TEMPO TEAM