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Businessman gets 15 years, while former minister walks free
Prison ahead: Fire truck businessman Hengky Samuel Daud talks to journalists after attending his verdict at the Corruption Court in Jakarta on Thursday
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span class="inline inline-right">Prison ahead: Fire truck businessman Hengky Samuel Daud talks to journalists after attending his verdict at the Corruption Court in Jakarta on Thursday. Hengky was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined Rp 500 million. JP/Nurhayati
Businessman Hengky Samuel Daud was sentenced to 15 years in jail for corruption, while his alleged partner in crime, former minister Hari Sabarno, is a free man.
The Corruption Court on Thursday sentenced Hengky for his alleged involvement in a major graft case involving the procurement of fire trucks for various regions across the country from 2003 to 2006, which cost the state up to Rp 11 billion (US$1.78 million) in losses.
The prosecutors sought 10 years imprisonment for the director of PT Istana Sarana Raya, but the judges gave him a harsher sentence.
The panel of five judges, chaired by Maryana, found Hengky guilty of a conspiracy to violate the 2002 Anti-Corruption Law.
The judges also imposed a Rp 500 million fine and demanded Hengky pay Rp 82.64 billion in restitution to the state.
“The fines may be reduced after 29 of the fire trucks that were confiscated from the defendant are auctioned,” judge Maryana said.
Hengky is charged with marking up the prices of the fire trucks supplied to several provinces, municipalities and regencies, with the approval of the then home minister Sabarno.
The trucks were distributed to the provinces of Central Java, Bali, North Sulawesi, North Maluku and Bengkulu, as well as the regencies of Kendari, Minahasa, Bolaang Mongondow, Central Lampung and Tanggamus.
In the verdict, judges found that Hengky had bribed a number of top officials at the ministry, including Sabarno, as well as local leaders in many regions.
“The defendant was found giving the daughter of the former home minister Hari Sabarno Rp 450 million in cash to buy furniture and interior decorations,” Maryana said.
Former home affairs ministry’s regional autonomy director general Oentarto Sindung Mawardi, and a number of governors, mayors and regents have been imprisoned for their involvement in the case.
Former Makassar mayor Baso Amiruddin Maula, was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Supreme Court in 2008 in the same case. Former Medan mayor Abdillah was sentenced to five years in jail while his then deputy Ramli was sentenced to four years.
Former Riau governor Saleh Djasit was also sentenced to four years imprisonment for his involvement in the case.
Sabarno, however, is so far a free man.
In a previous trial, Hengky testified that he had a close relationship with Sabarno, who had instructed Oentarto to issue a memo in 2003 stating that Hengky’s company would be the sole supplier of the fire engines in several regions.
The memo ensured that Hengky’s company received the projects totaling more than Rp 300 billion without a tender, which is a violation of the anticorruption law.
The same court earlier that day also found two former Transportation Ministry officials guilty of corruption in a graft case involving the procurement of 20 patrol boats by the ministry in 2007 worth Rp 300 billion (US$32.4 million).
The judges sentenced the two transportation officials, Djoni Anwir Algamar and Tansean Parlindungan Malau, to three years and two-and-a-half years in prison respectively for their involvement in the patrol boat case.
