KPK to examine verdict in Bekasi mayor case

Bandung Corruption Court's acquittal of Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Muhammad had raised many eyebrows, including at the KPK, which is known to only prosecute when it has solid evidence.

Unlike the police and AGO, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is not allowed to halt an investigation. It is widely recognized that all defendants in graft cases investigated by the KPK, especially those tried at Jakarta Corruption Court, were put in prison since the panels of judges consistently found them guilty as charged.

“We want to study this case through the video recording first, before presenting our opinion. First, we need to be sure about this case,” KPK spokesman Johan Budi SP said Tuesday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Earlier, prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had demanded the court sentence Mochtar Mohamad to 12 years in prison and pay fines of Rp 300 million (US$33,452) for his involvement in multiple counts of graft.

The four cases include an alleged bribe paid to a selection team for the Adipura city cleanliness award, as well as an "approval fee" paid to Bekasi councilors to speed up the approval of the Bekasi budget for 2010. The approval fee was allegedly equal to 2 percent of the total city budget, which was worth more than Rp 1.6 trillion.

Mochtar was also charged with allegedly stealing Rp 639 million from the 2009 Bekasi budget, money he apparently used to pay off his debts to the Bekasi branch of Bank Jabar.

Before releasing Mochtar, the Bandung court had also released Subang regent Eep Hidayat and Bogor deputy

mayor Achmad Ru’yat for similar reasons, namely that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence to the court.