Indonesia's biggest Islamic party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), has been surrounded by a shocking controversy, involving hotel room sex, money laundering and huge bribes to import beef in past one week.
The latest scandal has been dubbed "Beefgate" by local media, which has given blanket coverage to a scandal of enormous proportions ruining the clean image of the PKS, which it sought to cultivate over the years, News.com.au reports.
An anti-corruption court had sentenced the disgraced former president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq to 16 years in jail last Monday.
Ishaaq was found guilty of bribery and money laundering after accepting kickbacks from firm Indoguna Utama in return for pressing the PKS-controlled agriculture ministry to increase the company's beef import quota, the report added.
Ishaaq resigned as president of ruling coalition member of PKS, as soon as the scandal emerged, and said he will appeal guilty verdict against him.
The anti-graft investigators seized six cars from Ishaaq and prosecutors accused the 52-year-old of trying to hide his marriage to one of his three wives, whom he wed last year when she was still a teenager.
An even bigger figure in the scandal is Ishaaq's close aide Ahmad Fathanah, who was jailed for 14 years in November, after being caught in a Jakarta hotel with a college student having paid sex.
He was found to have laundered his bribe money by giving gifts, including cars and diamonds, to 45 women, including several celebrities, the report added.
Meanwhile, the analysts warned that the controversy risks affecting all Islamic parties of Indonesia, which have been already struggling.
