Supreme Court doubles Anggodo’s sentence

The Supreme Court turned down an appeal filed by attempted bribery convict Anggodo Widjojo and handed him a heavier sentence of 10 years in prison, not the previous five-year sentence issued by a lower court.

Ad-hoc corruption justice Krisna Harahap confirmed Thursday that a panel of justices had also
ordered Anggodo pay Rp 250 million (US$28,500) in fines, which could be substituted with five months of additional imprisonment.

The other members of the panel were Artijo Alkostar, M.S. Lumme, Surya Jaya and Abdul Latief.

“The panel of justices also found Anggodo guilty of obstructing ongoing legal processes of the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] on his older brother,” Krisna said, referring to graft fugitive, also a businessman, Anggoro Widjojo.

A lawyer representing Anggodo, Tompsone Situmeang, said he was considering filing a case review, the final resort being to revise a Supreme Court verdict.

“I believe the justices have missed some legal facts regarding my client’s case,” he said.

Prosecutors initially demanded judges declare Anggodo guilty for two charges in accordance with the 2001 AntiCorruption Law: Attempting to bribe KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, and intentionally obstructing a corruption investigation.

Jakarta’s Corruption Court, however, only found Anggodo guilty of the first charge, in August last year. The court’s judges sentenced him to four years in prison, lighter than the six-year imprisonment demanded by prosecutors, and Rp 150 million in fines.

The KPK filed an appeal to the Jakarta High Court, which also did not find the businessman guilty of obstructing the antigraft body’s investigation. The court, however, punished Anggodo with a heavier five-year imprisonment and Rp 250 million in fines.

Anggodo was found guilty of attempting to bribe KPK leaders to halt the investigation into Anggoro.

The antigraft body was investigating Anggoro who was implicated in a bribery scandal linked to a
Forestry Ministry procurement project.

Anggodo claimed he had given middleman Ary Muladi Rp 5.1 billion in cash to be handed over to Bibit and Chandra.

While Bibit and Chandra have denied that they received Anggodo’s money, Ary claimed he had handed over the money to another middleman Yulianto whose existence is still being questioned.

Ary is now standing trial after being detained by the KPK in December of last year.