A dispute between Merrill Lynch and an Indonesian private banking client will be heard by a Jakarta court, a judge ruled on Wednesday, raising the stakes in a battle in which Singaporean courts have already ruled twice in the bank’s favour.

Indonesian police have declared Lily Widjaja, the head of Merrill’s Jakarta office, and Rahul Malhotra, managing director of its Singapore office, suspects in a parallel but related criminal case. They are accused of embezzlement and defamation in relation to the civil case between the bank and the client.