Prosecutors on Thursday demanded that senior prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan be sentenced to 15 years in jail for his alleged role in a major bribery case.
The Corruption Court should also fine him Rp 250 million (US$27,277), they said, adding that failure to pay it should be subject to an additional six months' imprisonment.
"After all witnesses and evidence have been presented in the court, we conclude that defendant Urip Tri Gunawan is legally and convincingly guilty of corruption," prosecutor Sarjono Turin told the court.
"The defendant must be jailed for 15 years and fined Rp 250 million."
The prosecutors also requested the court to rule that the US$660,000 bribe confiscated from Urip be handed over to state coffers, with his other belongings such as a laptop and a car be returned to the defendant.
Urip was charged with violating an article of the 2001 anti-corruption law for accepting a bribe from businesswoman Artalyta Suryani and Rp 1 billion from Reno Iskandarsyah, a lawyer for former chief of the now defunct Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency, Glenn Yusuf.
The article carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp 1 billion for state officials found guilty of receiving gifts in relation to their positions.
However, the KPK prosecutors said Urip's service during 17 years as a civil servant was a "mitigating factor" for them to reduce the sentencing demand.
Urip led a team set up by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to investigate the embezzlement of Bank Indonesia liquidity assistance (BLBI) funds allegedly involving tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim, a close relative of Artalyta.
Urip was alleged to provide information about the AGO's plan to summon Sjamsul and about the development of the investigation to Artalyta.
The Corruption Court sentenced Artalyta to five years in prison for the same offense.
Sjamsul, former owner of the now defunct Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, was implicated in the embezzlement of Rp 28.4 trillion in BLBI funds.
He remains the only fraudulent debtor among 37 witnesses who managed to evade three questioning sessions about his BLBI case during the investigation.
Before the close of the court session, Urip expressed his objection that the sentence demand was too high.
"For such a code of ethics violation the penalty demand is too heavy on me," he said.
He also protested a proverb used by the prosecutors when they started reading out their sentencing demand, in which they quoted an English judge in the 18th century, J. Barnett.
The quote read, "I do not punish you because you steal a horse but to prevent other horses from being stolen."
Urip said the saying could mean he was being punished not because of what he had done but to protect other prosecutors.
"I will point that out in my defense plea," he said.
The prosecutor Sarjono, however, said the proverb was directed at the case's potential to deter similar unlawful behavior.
"This has nothing to do with revenge or anything, but is shock therapy so that other law enforcers will not do the same things as Urip," he said.
The panel of judges adjourned the trial until Aug. 28 to hear a defense from Urip.
