Supreme Court upholds Urip's 20-year prison sentence

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 03/11/2009 3:13 PM  |  National

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a verdict issued by the High Corruption Court and dismissed an appeal by former state prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan against his sentencing in a bribery case relating to the Indonesian Banking Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) scandal.

The court upheld the 20-year jail term and fine for Rp 500 million (US$40,000) that had been previously imposed by the Corruption Court.

A panel of judges led by Artiko Alkostar handed down the verdict unanimously during a session at the Supreme Court building in Jakarta.

"There was no mistake in the previous verdict," panel member MS Lumme said, referring to the High Corruption Court verdict, as quoted by Antara.

Prosecutors of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had previously demanded Urip be jailed for 15 years and fined Rp 250 million, after it found him guilty of accepting a bribe for US$660,000 to stop investigations into a massive loan scandal.

In September last year, the Corruption Court sentenced Urip to 20 years in prison for accepting the bribe from businesswoman Artalyta Suryani, who was closely linked to business tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim. Artalyta was also sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum sentence for her crime.

Urip was further convicted of extorting Rp 1 billion from former Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency chief Glenn Yusuf through his lawyer Reno Iskandarsyah.

Urip and Artalyta were both arrested by the KPK just two days after the Attorney General's Office (AGO) had dropped its investigations into Sjamsul and businessman Anthony Salim for their alleged role in the embezzlement of a huge loan disbursed by the government under the Indonesian Banking Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) scheme.

Urip had previously led an AGO team investigating the misuse of Rp 28.4 trillion in BLBI funds by Sjamsul, the former owner of the now defunct Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia.

 

Sjamsul remains the only fraudulent debtor among 37 witnesses who managed to evade three questioning sessions over his involvement in the BLBI scandal. (dre)

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