Indonesia's missing parliamentary Speaker, who vanished as anti-corruption investigators closed in on him, has emerged, claiming he was in a car accident.

Key points: Setya is wanted over a botched effort to issue Indonesians with electronic ID cards

Setya is wanted over a botched effort to issue Indonesians with electronic ID cards Investigators have summoned Setya 11 times without success

Investigators have summoned Setya 11 times without success Attempts to prosecute Setya have implications for political ally Joko Widodo

Indonesia had been captivated by the hunt for Setya Novanto, who is being pursued over his links to a multi-million-dollar corruption scandal.

The influential politician vanished for 24 hours, but later turned up heavily bandaged in a hospital emergency room saying he had been involved in a car crash.

Mr Setya's lawyer said he was not trying to avoid investigators even though it was the second time he had been hospitalised in unusual circumstances in the midst of a corruption investigation.

The politician is a political ally of President Joko Widodo but has been dogged by corruption allegations for years.

Mr Setya is wanted for questioning over a vast corruption scandal involving a botched effort to issue Indonesians with electronic identity cards.

As the chairman of one of Indonesia's largest political parties, Mr Setya is one of Indonesia's most important politicians and attempts to prosecute him have implications for the re-election hopes of Mr Widodo.

Mr Setya is extremely well connected.

In 2016 he was praised as a "great man" by then US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

But corruption rumours have dogged Mr Setya for years.

Investigators with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have been trying to question Mr Setya for months over his role in the $700 million e-ID affair.

The so-called smart cards were supposed to provide easy electronic access to all kinds of government services. The rollout has been slow and the cards do not do much at all.

The KPK said corrupt politicians stole the money that was set aside for the scheme.

KPK investigators have summoned Mr Setya 11 times without success, and last night they took the bold step of going directly to his home to bring him in.

But when he was not at home, with nobody seeming to know where he was, the search for Mr Setya became the talk of the nation.

In 2016 Donald Trump praised Setya Novanto as a "great man". ( Reuters: Lucas Jackson )

Major test case for anti-corruption President

In 2015, Mr Setya was accused of trying to extort $US1.8 billion in shares from US company Freeport McMoran in exchange for allowing the company to continue mining in the province of Papua.

When a recording was released of the alleged extortion attempt Mr Setya told journalists "it was just a joke".

The e-ID investigation is perhaps the biggest threat yet to Mr Setya, and creates problems for Mr Widodo who came to power promising to tackle Indonesia's endemic corruption.

"This will be a very big test case for the President," said political analyst Tobias Basuki, from the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

"It's almost a Catch 22 because Setya Novanto's party is Joko Widodo's backer in Parliament and this case definitely involves other politicians, including politicians from the President's party.

"The biggest risk is getting his allies to be also entrapped in the case, and there's also the challenge of getting less political backing from the powerful politicians who are involved in this case.

"But on the other hand, if Setya Novanto was to go scot-free there would be a lot of backlash on President Widodo's moral legitimacy as an anti-corruption president."