Regent jailed for 7.5 years for graft

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 04/24/2008 12:25 AM  |  Headlines

Agus Supriyadi, regent of Garut in West Java, was sentenced Wednesday to seven and a half years in prison for corruption involving Rp 10.8 billion of government money.

The Corruption Court also ordered the suspended regent to pay a Rp 300 million fine and return Rp 8.18 billion in restitution to the state.

Prosecutors had requested the court impose a 10-year sentence and require Agus to pay a Rp 500 million fine and Rp 10.8 billion in compensation.

The panel of judges, presided over by Marsyidin Chaniago, said Agus was found guilty of misusing the 2004-2007 budget for the Garut administration to repay his personal debts and of channeling some of the money to his own account.

The judges said the defendant violated Article 2 of the 1999 Corruption Eradication Law.

Agus, who was suspended from his position in January, was also found guilty of misusing Rp 365.7 million of aid money from the West Java administration earmarked for security funding during the 2004 general elections.

Prosecutors had accused Agus of using the regency money to make house repayments to developer PT Dwikarya Ana Graha and to buy furniture for his house in Bandung, West Java.

He also used the money to make payments for his two cars, they said.

Agus was also accused of receiving a total of Rp 1.692 billion in bribes from Ocad Rosadin and Taufik Hidayat, two investors whom he approved for development projects in Garut.

The bribes amounted to Rp 250 million from Ocad, whose proposal to build the Cikajang traditional market was approved by Agus, and Rp 1.442 billion from Taufik, who won a sports complex project in Garut, the prosecutors said.

Agus said after the trial he was disappointed with the court ruling and would appeal.

"The verdict is unfair because it is only based on the witnesses' testimony, not on the facts," he told journalists.

Agus said the amount demanded for restitution was irrational. The Rp 8.18 billion restitution should have been reduced by the value of his assets seized by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), he said.

The KPK named him as a suspect in the graft case in July 2007. He is currently in custody at the South Jakarta Police detention center.

Agus is the latest active regent to be sent to prison by the anticorruption body.

Last December, East Kalimantan's Kutai Kartanegara regent Syaukani Hasan Rais was jailed by the same court for two years and six months for a separate graft case.

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