Central bank ex top officials on trial to hear final verdict

Oey Hoey Tiong and Rusli Simanjuntak, former top officials at Bank Indonesia (BI) are to hear the verdict in the Rp 100 billion (US$9.3 million) BI funds embezzlement trial Wednesday afternoon.

Oey and Rusli are former heads of BI's legal bureau and communications department, respectively.

The Corruption Court began its final trial session at 11:25 this morning. At the time of writing, the panel of judges was reading its legal analysis of the case.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors have demanded six years of imprisonment each for both defendants.

The KPK charged Oey and Rusli with being involved in a collective criminal act when the BI board of governors decided in a June 2003 meeting to disburse money to former BI officials from BI's Indonesian Banking Development Foundation.

A total of Rp 68.5 billion was consequently given to five former senior BI officials:  Hendro Budiyanto, Soedrajat Djiwandono, Iwan Prawiranata, Heru Soepraptomo and Paul Sutopo. All five had been implicated in the BI liquidity support (BLBI) corruption cases.

The remaining Rp 31.5 billion was handed out to members of the House of Representatives serving on then Commission IX (which oversaw financial affairs) to expedite the settlement of the BLBI cases and the amendment of the 1999 BI law. (dre)