House commission meets with key witness of Yusril’s case

The House of Representatives Commission III on law and human rights held a Thursday hearing with former law and human rights ministry’s legal administration director general Romli Artasasmita, a corruption case convict.

A commission deputy chairman, Fahri Hamzah from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said Romli was being invited to tell everything he knows about a graft case that recently implicated former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

The graft case centers on an online service initiated and owned by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry during Yusril’s term in 2001. The service offered public services such as the issuance of notarized acts and the registration of permits.

The contract stipulated that the privately held company would receive 90 percent of the revenue from the site, and the remainder would go to the ministry cooperative.

Between April 2001 and November 2008, the service generated more than Rp 420 billion in access fees, which the prosecutors said should have gone to state coffers.

Romli was convicted in the case.

Yusril said the project did not constitute corruption allegations because there were no losses to the state.