Nazaruddin fasting in detention: Driver

JAKARTA: Graft defendant M. Nazaruddin, who reportedly suffers from gastric problems, fasts on Mondays and Thursdays during his detention at the Cipinang Detention Center in East Jakarta, his driver says.

“At the center, Pak Nazaruddin only prays, chants and recites the Koran,” Aan, the driver, told tribunnews.com, on Thursday.

He said he had never seen Nazaruddin exercising.

Nazaruddin is a suspect in a bribery case centering on a procurement

project at the Youth and Sports Ministry for the construction of the SEA Games athletes’ village in Palembang, South Sumatra, in November. Nazaruddin is believed to have operated dozens of businesses that he used to funnel some of the benefits to the party. Allegedly, his firms acted as proxies by bidding for government projects that they then subcontracted to larger companies.

In his trial, Nazaruddin continued to make accusations against Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum.

Nazaruddin has repeatedly said that Anas took large sums of money from state-financed development projects, which was then spent on buying votes for his bid in the party’s chairmanship race, as well as on luxury houses and cars for himself. Anas has denied all the accusations.

With more disclosures of his alleged role in a number of graft cases, Anas’ chairmanship of the party reportedly hung in the balance as he struggled to deal with the party’s intensifying rifts.