Lawmakers get 3, 4 1/2 years for graft

Eny Wulandari ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 01/07/2009 4:00 PM  |  National

The Corruption Court sentenced Wednesday lawmakers Hamka Yandhu and Anthony Zeidra Abudin to serve three and four and a half years in jail, respectively, for accepting bribe from Bank Indonesia (BI) officials.

The court also demanded Yandhu and Abidin to each pay Rp 150 and 250 million in fine and serve additional five and six months in prison should they fail to pay.

At today's trial, the panel of judges said both were proven to have violated the subsidiary charge of article 11 of the 1999 corruption law on gratification.

“Both Hamka and Anthony accepted Rp 500 million from BI officials related to the discusssion on the amandement of the Central Bank Law and the resolution of the Indonesian Banking Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) case,” said presiding judge Masrurdin Chaniago.

He added, however, that both defendants were not proven to have violated the primary charge of article 12 of the 1999 corruption law on bribery.

“There is not enough proof of correlation between the Rp 28.5 billion bribe money and the House of Representatives's move to amend the law and solve the BLBI case,” he said.

Responding to the verdicts, Yandhu said he accepted the decision and pledged to pay all of the money immediately, while Abidin said he would take time to decide whether or not to file for an appeal.

The team of prosecutors had also said they would wait awhile before filing an appeal for a heavier sentence as they had previously demanded Yandhu and Abidin to serve four and six years for their crime.

“We appreciate the judges' verdict, but we will search for objective proofs to support our appeal and hope that we can rescue all of the state losses brought about by the scandal,” prosecutor Rudi Margono said. (amr)

 

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