Djoko Suprapto, the inventor behind the controversial "blue energy" project, stood trial at Bantul District Court, Central Java, on Monday on charges of deceiving Muhammadiyah University, Yogyakarta (UMY).
Djoko deceived the university in his alternative fuel scam and power plant projects and had cost the university Rp 1.345 billion (around US$115,000) in losses, the prosecutor said in the indictment.
Djoko is facing a maximum five years in prison for embezzlement.
Earlier this year, Djoko had offered UMY a project to develop alternative fuel using seawater as the main raw material and a non-fuel power plant that he claimed was able to generate three megawatts of electricity.
The university agreed to provide money for research and development and for the operational costs of the projects, only to find none of them were fruitful.
Before the case erupted in the media, Djoko claimed to have invented an alternative energy fuel derived from water, which he called Banyugeni or "fire water". The fuel later became known as "blue energy", a phrase reportedly taken up by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
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