Nazaruddin dishes dirt on former colleagues

JP/Jerry AdigunaIn his latest salvo against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, graft defendant Muhammad Nazaruddin told the Jakarta Corruption Court on Wednesday that his former colleague, Angelina Sondakh, admitted receiving Rp 9 billion (US$990,000) from Andi Mallarangeng, the Youth and Sports Minister, in connection with corruption surrounding the SEA Games.

He said Angelina, a Democratic Party lawmaker serving on the House of Representatives’ commission overseeing sports, confessed before a party fact-finding team to receiving the money from Andi, who is also a Democratic Party politician, and ministry secretary Wafid Muharram, who is now standing trial in the case.

She later distributed most of the money to Mirwan Amir, the party’s deputy treasurer, and party chairman Anas Urbaningrum. From the Rp 9 billion, Angelina is said to have given Rp 5 billion to Mirwan and several other politicians, Rp 2 billion to Anas and Rp 1 billion to the party’s faction at the House.

A number of Democratic Party legislators, including the party’s faction chairman Jafar Hafsah, fact-finding team leader Benny Kabur Harman, and Democratic Party members such as Ruhut Sitompul, Max Sopacua, Eddy Sitanggang and Mahyudin, witnessed Angelina’s confession, he claimed.

The meeting was held on May 12 when the fact-finding team — which was formed to investigate the case before Nazaruddin was charged — questioned Angelina over her involvement in the case. “In the same forum, Mirwan later admitted that he did indeed accept Rp 8 billion from Angelina,” Nazaruddin said.

 He told the court he knew nothing about the Rp 9 billion and pointed the finger at his former colleagues. “I really didn’t know about the Rp 9 billion. I just heard about it from Angelina’s statement before the team, which was later confirmed by the person who accepted the money.”

Democrats have consistently denied Nazaruddin’s allegations, although testimonies from those charged in the case consistently show that other party officials were likely implicated in the high-profile graft case.

The indictment of Nazaruddin’s confidante Mindo “Rosa” Rosalina Manulang, which was read out in July, stated an agreement was made by Rosa and Nazaruddin to channel 5 percent of the Rp 191.7 billion contract to build an athletes’ village for this year’s SEA Games in Palembang, South Sumatra, to House members. The agreement was made in a meeting at Nazaruddin’s office.

However, despite Nazaruddin’s accusations, the KPK prosecutors did not charge Angelina or other politicians, as there was not enough evidence to back up his allegations.

Former Nazaruddin employee, Yulianis, told judges presiding over the trial of graft convict Muhammad El Idris, the marketing manager at PT Duta Graha Indah (DGI) which won the bid, that lawmakers were already paid Rp 9 billion in “success fees”, representing about 5 percent of the project’s value.

“I recorded the disbursement of the fees in April last year. It was before the bid began,” Yulianis said at the time. She said she knew the details of the allocations due to her position as the deputy finance director of Permai Group.

In late August, Rosa testified before the same court that Angelina “once asked Nazaruddin for money”.

Nazaruddin first made the same accusation against his former colleagues in July when he was on his sojourn in Singapore.

On Wednesday, Nazaruddin demurred to the KPK’s interrogation, saying he had never been questioned about his role in the case from his point of view. Last week, Nazaruddin told the judges he did not understand the prosecutors’ accusations in the indictment and he maintained his trial had been engineered.

Nazaruddin was summoned to the State Palace just before he fled to Singapore in May.

Hotman Paris Hutapea, one of Nazaruddin’s lawyers, requested that the bench accept the demurrer and rule that the indictment was void because it was one-sided.

“The charges are based upon other people’s testimonies instead of the defendant’s. And the defendant has not yet been confronted with that information,” he said.

Hutapea asked the judges to exclude politics from this case and said he hoped the KPK would focus only on the law.

I Kadek Wiradana, one of KPK prosecutors, said his team will answer the demurrer.

Presiding judge Darmawati Ningsih adjourned the trial until next week.