BI bribery suspect confesses to meeting Paskah

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 09/24/2008 4:21 PM  |  National

Former BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah confessed Wednesday to meeting with former lawmaker Paskah Suzetta twice to disucess how to react to Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) findings on alleged bribery in 2004.

On trial, Burhanuddin said he and Paskah, who is now the minister for national development planning, listened to an explanation from a Bank Indonesia (BI) official, Lukman Bunyamin, about the state of the BPK findings on the alleged illicit distribution of funds to lawmakers.

"We were telling each other on how to solve the problem," Burhanuddin said at the Corruption Court on Wednesday. He is being tried for approving the disbursement of Rp 31.5 billion (US$3.4 million) to lawmakers.

He said the second meeting with Paskah was also attended by other suspects in the BI bribery case: lawmakers Hamka Yamdhu and Abdullah Zaini, and former BI spokesperson Rusli Simanjuntak.

"It was Abdullah Zaini who led the meeting," Burhanuddin said.

There was no definite decision from the meeting on how to handle the BPK findings, he added.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.