Indonesia Names 243 People and 13 Companies as Suspects in Forest Fire Cases

Corporate cases and permit recommendations

Suyudi presented the enforcement figures at a Cabinet plenary session at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on October 21, 2026. He had taken office as National Police Chief on October 1.

The corporate figures, updated at 6 p.m. on October 20, cover 100 police reports and 29,534.99 hectares of burned land. Suyudi said 10 regional police commands and a unit of the Criminal Investigation Agency's General Crimes Directorate were handling the cases. Six cases had been stopped, while 94 remained under investigation.

Police recommended revoking permits in connection with 23 reports that had reached the investigation stage. Within that group, 11 corporations had been named as suspects and the status of 12 others remained undetermined. Investigators had not recommended permit revocation for another 71 reports; two of those had reached suspect status, while 69 had not.

The 11 corporate suspects in the permit-revocation group hold concessions totaling about 209,933 hectares, including 11,105.39 hectares that burned. Eight are in West Kalimantan, two in Central Kalimantan and one in South Kalimantan. The other 12 corporations hold 166,756 hectares of concessions, with 8,849 hectares burned.

Foreign investment under scrutiny

Suyudi identified 22 corporations affiliated with foreign investment in the corporate investigations. He also said three of the 11 suspects in the permit-revocation group were foreign-invested companies, known as PMA companies. Those three remain under investigation, and their names have not been made public.

WALHI, an Indonesian environmental group, has separately identified at least 93 companies linked to the fires with ties to Singapore or Malaysia. Uli Arta Siagian, who heads the group's forest and plantation campaign, said the companies were either registered in those countries or had later joined corporate groups listed there.

Prabowo said foreign companies must be held accountable if they are found to have broken Indonesia's fire-prevention rules. He warned that the government could revoke their concessions and disclose their names, citing allegations that some companies had violated the rules as many as 19 times.

Enforcement against individuals

The cases involving individuals span 13 regional police commands. Suyudi reported 286 police reports involving 5,856 hectares of burned land and 243 people named as suspects.

His status breakdown listed 32 cases as ongoing, nine as stopped, 189 as in progress and 56 as concluded.

Forestry Ministry sanctions

Separate from the criminal investigations, the Forestry Ministry has imposed administrative sanctions on 32 companies. Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni announced the measures in the week before October 22, 2026. They range from permit suspensions and mandatory ecosystem restoration to outright permit revocations.

The sanctioned companies hold about 1.9 million hectares of concessions, with 18,489 hectares recorded as burned.

Raja Juli said six forestry companies in Central Kalimantan had their Forest Utilisation Business Permits (PBPH) suspended and were ordered to restore fire-affected areas. Their combined concessions cover 201,391 hectares, including 7,531 hectares affected by recent fires.

The six are PT Produk Kalimantan Jaya, PT Taiyong Engreen, PT Hutan Produk Lestari, PT Ramang Agro Lestari, PT Puspa Warna Cemerlang and PT Sinergi Hutan Sejati.

Burned land, health effects and Singapore's response

Tempo reported that about 202,000 hectares burned across Indonesia from January through July 2026, an area roughly three times the size of Jakarta. That estimate does not include land burned during the following three months.

As of October 14, the Ministry of Health had recorded 283,270 acute respiratory infection cases attributed to wildfire smoke across seven provinces. The total included 63,711 cases among children younger than five.

Singapore's National Environment Agency has sent notices under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014 to 10 Indonesian companies. Seven were linked to fires in Sumatra; the other three held concessions in Kalimantan associated with smoke that may have reached Singapore.

The notices require the companies to send firefighting personnel, stop burning and provide plans for extinguishing and preventing fires. A conviction under the law can carry a fine of up to S$100,000 a day, subject to a S$2 million cap.