Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Detectives with the Banda Aceh Police have arrested and detained the head of the province's shariah police on suspicion of embezzlement, an officer said on Friday.

Sr. Comr. Moffan Mudji Kafanti, who heads the Banda Aceh Police, told the Jakarta Globe that Khalidin Lhoong, chief of the shariah police, was officially detained late on Thursday afternoon and be questioned on Friday. He is being accused of misappropriating part of the wages for contract-based personnel of the shariah police.

"He is being detained on suspicion of having embezzled part of the salary – around Rp 650,000 [$56] – for each of his 1,000 underlings. The total sum he embezzled reached Rp 650 million," Moffan said.

He said that the suspect attempted to return the money he embezzled once police began probing the case. "Witnesses said the suspect had enjoyed the money he cut from the salaries," Moffan said. "But after the police started to investigate him, he quickly returned the money."

The witnesses said that the reason Khalidin had given for cutting the salaries was allegedly to pay for sports uniforms, urine tests and machines to print and laminate member cards.

Moffan said that police had actually planned to arrest Khalidin in September, but because he was due to go on the hajj, the police waited until one week after he returned from Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

He said that another suspect in the same case, identified as Teuku Armansyah, who heads the administrative bureau for the Aceh Shariah Police, was also arrested. The two could face at least five years in jail for violating the nation's Anti-Corruption Law.

Moffan also said that police had completed the dossiers for each of the two suspects, and that they will soon submit them to the prosecutor's office for the indictment preparation.

Khalidin told journalists at the city police headquarters that he was innocent, claiming that the salary cut was agreed upon by the concerned personnel. He also maintained that none of the money from the cuts went into his own pockets.

However, Moffan, remained adamant that the police would pursue the charges against Khalidin. "He is free to comment, but from the information from the treasurer of the Aceh Shariah Police, it is clear that he did enjoy the money," he said. "But when the police began investigating him, he quickly returned the money."

Under a special autonomy granted to Aceh following an agreement in the 2005 peace pact that ended decades of separatist conflict in the province, the region was granted the authority to enforce partial shariah law. The judiciary and the education system are subject to elements of Islamic law, as are social mores.