Unshaken:
Anggodo Widjojo (left) is congratulated by his legal team in Jakarta on
Tuesday, after the Corruption Court sentenced the businessman to four
years in prison for attempting to bribe Corruption Eradication
Commission deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.
JP/Nurhayati
The Corruption Court sentenced Anggodo
Widjojo to four years in prison on Tuesday for attempted bribery — a
punishment one observer said was “too lenient”.
“We declare that
Anggodo Widjojo is legally guilty of committing corruption,” lead judge
Tjokorda Rae Suamba said while reading the verdict.
The
Constitutional Court’s decision disproves allegations made by the
police and Attorney General Office (AGO) prosecutors that the
businessman had been extorted by Corruption Eradication Commission
(KPK) leaders Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.
Anggodo
was found guilty of offering a Rp 5.1 billion (US$566,100) bribe to
Bibit and Chandra through middlemen Ari Muladi and Eddi Sumarsono.
The
bribe was to halt the KPK’s investigation of Anggodo’s fugitive
brother, Anggoro Widjojo, who was previously implicated in bribery
scandal linked to a Forestry Ministry procurement project.
The
court also found Anggodo not guilty of obstruction of justice for
filing false charges with the police against Bibit and Chandra.
The court ordered Anggodo to pay Rp 150 million ($16,650) in fines or to serve three more months in prison.
Wearing
a blue batik shirt and flanked by an army of defense attorneys, Anggodo
said he would appeal the verdict. Prosecutors said they would consider
appealing the sentence.
Anggodo looked jovial despite the
verdict, joking with his attorneys and smiling in the courtroom. He
took time for an impromptu photo session with his legal team, which is
headed by OC Kaligis. In one pose, they gave each other military-style
salutes before breaking into laughter.
“This is an extended family photo session,” one attorney said. No court officials were in sight.
Looking unusually relaxed, Anggodo puffed on a cigarette.
One observer said the sentence for Anggodo was “too light”.
“How
come Anggodo only got four years?” said legislator Nudirman Munir of
the Golkar Party. “In China, he could have been sentenced to death.”
The
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW)’s Emerson Juntho said: “This sentence
is relatively light for Anggodo because everyone believes he is the
mastermind behind these fabrications, which were intended to weaken
KPK.”
He added that Anggodo should have been sentenced to at least six years as prosecutors had demanded.
Justice
and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar declined to comment, but he
told journalists a story about an old woman who was sentenced to two
years in prison for failing to repay Rp 5 million debt.
“Let people make their own judgements about all this,” Patrialis said, as quoted by detik.com.
KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that the verdict had disproved the extortion allegations levelled at Bibit and Chandra.
“The
question has always been if the KPK leaders extorted money from Anggodo
or if Anggodo attempted to bribe them. We hope the Supreme Court will
use this verdict as a basis for reviewing the Bibit-Chandra case,” he
said.
The AGO said that the verdict would have no effect on its
Supreme Court appeal of a lower court’s ruling that stated Bibit and
Chandra should stand trial on suspicion of extorting Anggodo, as
originally requested by the police and prosecutors.
“The two
cases are unrelated and the Supreme Court justices will have their own
rationale when ruling on Bibit and Chandra,” AGO spokesman Babul Khoir
Harahap said.
