Prosecutors seek life sentence for former BI governors

The Jakarta Post   |  Fri, 01/30/2009 6:15 PM  |  National

The trial of four former Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governors began on Friday afternoon with the team of prosecutors calling for four life sentences.

The prosecutors said the former governors: Aulian Thantawi Pohan, Maman H. Somantri, Bun Bunan E.J. Hutapea and Aslim Tadjuddin, had conspired to misappropriate Rp 100 million (US$8.8 million) of funds from a BI foundation and used it to bribe lawmakers making amendments to the law governing the central bank in 2003.

"The four defendants had taken and spent BI funds formerly stored at the Indonesian banking Development Foundation," prosecutor Rudi Margono said at the trial.

Rudi said that in May 2003 Aulia ordered his aids, Rusli Simanjuntak and Asnar Azhari, to meet members of House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing financial affairs to gain political support in the making of the new law on the central bank.

"Please proceed with the meeting with the honorable House members. Report to me, Maman or BI governor," Rudi said citing Aulia's letter to his aids.

Former BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah was sentenced for five years imprisonment under the same charges in October last year.

Two former top bank officials, Oey Hoey Tiong and Rusli Simanjuntak, were each sentenced to four years in jail in October last year in the same case. Lawmakers Hamka Yandhu and Antony Zeidra Abidin were sentenced to three and four-and-a-half years in jail, respectively, last month for accepting bribes from the BI fund executors. (and)
 

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