The court on Wednesday tried Syarwanie Soeni, a director of one of several travel firms that allegedly collaborated with ministry officials to inflate overseas airfares for diplomats between 2008 and 2009.

Prosecutors in the case say by collaborating to markup the flight tickets, Syarwanie’s company, PT Indowanua Inti Sentosa, caused state losses of more than US$183,000.

The Attorney General’s Office has named at least 10 suspects in the case, including several directors of travel firms and ministry officials.

Former minister Hassan Wirajuda’s name was mentioned in the testimony of another suspect in the case.

Ade Sudirman, a former staffer at the ministry, reportedly said earlier this year that he had transferred Rp 25 million (US$2,800) to Hassan and his wife each month during that period.

Syarwanie’s lawyer, Adnan Buyung Nasution, said he would seek to bring Hassan to the stand.

Prosecutors said Syarwanie’s travel firm had inflated the diplomats’ airfares by around 25 percent.

He was charged with articles in the 1999 Corruption Law and faces up to 20 years in prison.

“The money obtained from the markup was used to pay Ade Sudirman with 9.5 percent [of the actual prices],” prosecutor Sila Pulungan said.

Ade, who was then the ministry’s finance staffer was taken into custody in March and is awaiting trial.

On Wednesday, prosecutors said Syarwanie’s firm provided the ministry’s finance bureau with either blank invoices or those inflated by 25 percent and with signed blank receipts.

Adnan said he would demur to prosecutors’ indictment, which he called “flawed”.

“The cooperation [between Syarwanie] and the ministry goes back to 1987. The defendant has only been a director for the company since 2006, he was just carrying on [the cooperation],” he added.

The case was exposed when the AGO received a report from the ministry’s inspectorate-general claiming that several officials may have cooperated with travel agents to inflate overseas airfares for diplomats.

Foreign Ministry files show that 273 of 512 tickets purchased in 2009 and 329 of 673 tickets purchased in 2008 had inflated prices.

Some ministry officials allegedly marked up the cost of tickets for Indonesian diplomats, who were then transferred back to Jakarta during the 2008-2009 period.

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