Century ex-owners to be tried in absentia

JAKARTA: The Central Jakarta District Court will on March 18 try in absentia Hesyam Al Waraq and Rafat Ali Rizvi, former majority co-owners of Bank Century.

Another former part owner, Robert Tantular, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined Rp 50 billion by the same court last year for defrauding bank customers.

In January, an appeals court slapped an extra year onto Robert’s sentence.

Prosecutors allege Hesyam and Rafat embezzled at least US$1.4 billion from Century, which in 2008 had to be bailed out at a cost of Rp 6.76 trillion ($716 million).

The assistant attorney general for special crimes, Marwan Effendy, said Hesyam and Rafat could face the death penalty if found guilty of “corruption in a time of crisis”.

“Capital punishment may be warranted in this particular case because they are believed to have committed corruption at a time when the state was in crisis,” Marwan said. — JP