Prosecutors seek 20 years for Gayus

JP/Nurhayati Graft hurts: Corruption defendant Gayus Tambunan reacts during his trial at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday. Prosecutors demanded a 20-year prison term and a Rp 500 million (US$55,000) fine or another six months in prison. Prosecutors asked the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday to sentence graft suspect Gayus H. Tambunan to 20 years in prison for tax-related corruption.

“We demand 20 years in prison,” Rhein E. Singal, who leads the team of prosecutors, said at Gayus’ trial.

Rhein also asked the court to fine Gayus Rp 500 million (US$55,500) or sentence him to another six months in prison.

The prosecutor said Gayus was guilty of violating four articles in the revised 1999 Anticorruption Law.

Gayus breached one article of the law by abusing his position as a tax official by not following procedures in his handling of PT Surya Alam Tunggal’s tax case, causing Rp 570 million in state losses, Rhein said.

He said Gayus was guilty of violating another article by giving $700,000 to his former lawyer, Haposan Hutagalung, who later funneled the money to investigator Comr. Arafat Enanie in order for Gayus to avoid being arrested, to prevent the seizure of his house in Kelapa Gading, and to halt the freezing of his Bank Mandiri account. Gayus also gave another $6,000 to Enanie after Adj. Sr. Comr. Mardiyani bombarded him with questions during a police inquiry. Enanie then gave $4,000 to Mardiyani, Rhein said.

The prosecutor said Gayus violated another article of the law by bribing Judge Muhtadi Asnun, who presided over Gayus’ money laundering and corruption trial, with $40,000 to secure his acquittal at Tangerang District Court.

Gayus was also guilty of violating an article by conspiring with businessman Andi Kosasih to create a fake agreement letter to unfreeze Gayus’ Rp 28 billion bank account, according to the prosecutors.

The last three indictments were all related to Gayus’ money laundering and embezzlement case, and for which he was acquitted by the Tangerang District Court in March 2010. But, the case has been reopened following revelations that Gayus bribed police officers, prosecutors and judges to acquit him.   

Before Gayus’ indictment, Enanie was sentenced to five years in prison for accepting a bribe from Gayus, and Judge Asnun was imprisoned for two years on similar charges. Businessman Andi Kosasih was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and fined Rp 4 billion for creating the letter that said he had given Gayus the money that was in his account in order to purchase property on his behalf.

After hearing the prosecution’s sentencing request, Gayus said he was prepared for it because he had not “taken care” of the case.

“The prosecution’s sentencing request was not based on the facts presented in court, but based on whether a case is ‘taken care of’ or not,” he said after the trial session.

Gayus added that he had previously received a light sentence when his lawyer, Haposan Hutagalung, “took care” of his earlier case.

“I did not ‘take care’ [of things] for today, so the prosecutors requested the maximum sentence,” he said.

Adnan Buyung Nasution, Gayus’ lawyer, said the sentence request was “shocking”.

According to Adnan, Gayus’ “small time” tax graft case paled in comparison to the alleged involvement of a legal mafia, which included big corporate names. “That has not been divulged at all,” he said, adding that he urged the police, prosecutors and the Judicial Mafia Taskforce to fully investigate the case.

He said he was concerned that Gayus’ indictment would halt the need to probe possibly bigger cases involved in Gayus’ tax graft case.

“If he is sentenced to 20 years, I am worried that the other [cases] will be considered void. This [indictment] will be considered sufficient,” he said. (gzl)