As many as 38 current and former councilors in Sidoarjo regency will likely face jail time very soon, following the Supreme Court’s upholding of a decision by the East Java Higher Court to sentence them to three years in jail.

The councilors and former councilors were initially sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for their involvement in a graft case worth Rp 21.9 billion (US$1.94 million) at the regency legislative council in 2003.

On Thursday, Mulyono, a spokesman for the East Java Prosecutor’s Office in Surabaya, told The Jakarta Post that prosecutors would execute the Supreme Court’s verdict soon after his office had received it.

However, he admitted his office had yet to receive the verdict.

Earlier this week, Supreme Court spokesman Nurhadi said in a meeting with the Sidoarjo District Court that the Supreme Court had rejected the 38 councilors’ appeals and would uphold the verdicts of the East Java High Court that sentenced each of them to three years in prison.

Nurhadi also said the Sidoarjo Prosecutor’s Office should be prepared to execute the court verdict to uphold legal certainty.

The 38 politicians, including 13 who are still serving on the regency legislature for the 2004-2009 period, were convicted by the Sidoarjo District Court for embezzling the Rp 21.9 billion fund.

The money was used for comparative studies and official trips to other provinces, seminars and other purposes.

The former council speaker was also slapped with a 6-year sentence in the same case, after having recently finished serving out another jail sentence.

During the investigations, several councillors were revealed to have not taken part in the comparative studies and official trips, while the seminars turned out to be fictitious.

The 38 councillors included, among others, Arly Fauzi, Ali Fauzan, Abdusshomad Mahfudz, Choirul Anam and Maimum Siraj of the National Awakening Party (PKB); Tito Pradopo, Sumi Harsono, Purwadi Sigarlagi and Tri Endroyono from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and Atoi Towali and Guntur Eko Sulistyo from the Golkar Party.

Sidoarjo District Court spokesman I Nyoman Dedy said the court was still awaiting the official copies of the Supreme Court verdict before they could be handed over to the Sidoarjo Prosecutor’s Office to be acted on.

Muhaimud Saiful, coordinator of NGO Delta Care, called on the Supreme Court to hand over the final verdict to the district court so that it could be executed by prosecutors.

He added several politicians implicated in the case would have to withdraw their candidacies for seats at the provincial and regency legislatures in the coming legislative election for the 2009-2014 period.

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