Evidence enough to prove Nazaruddin’s role in graft: KPK

Hypnotic speaker: High-profile defendant Muhammad Nazaruddin gestures as he poses a question to witness Mohamad El Idris. Idris was testifying in the trial of a graft case centering on the construction of a Rp 191.7 billion athletes’ village for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in South Sumatra. JP/Jerry AdigunaThe Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors are optimistic they will be able to prove former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin’s role in a company allegedly used to win the SEA Games’ athletes’ village project in 2011.

Meanwhile, Nazaruddin was seeking to pin the party’s chairman, Anas Urbaningrum, with allegations of graft and, in so doing, save his wife, suspect Neneng Sri Wahyuni, from becoming implicated in the case, as witnesses during two separate trial hearings on Wednesday were unable to explain Nazaruddin’s role in the PT Permai Group, the company which he used to secure the project.

Nazaruddin ran and used a number of firms as proxies to bid for government projects that were then subcontracted to larger companies.

Mohamad El Idris and Dudung Purwadi, two senior officials at PT Duta Graha Indah, which won the SEA Games’ project, testified before the Jakarta Corruption Court on Wednesday that they were not sure Nazaruddin owned the
Permai Group.

I Kadek Wiradana, one of the KPK’s prosecutors, said however that the antigraft body would present other witnesses from the company who could explain Nazaruddin’s role. It was understandable that both El Idris and Dudung could not explain Nazaruddin’s status because they were outsiders.

“His status was only a formality. The fact is that they [Nazaruddin and his staff] had meetings three times a week,” Kadek told The Jakarta Post after the trial. “Rest assured, we will find other evidence and witnesses that can explain it.”

During the hearing, El Idris, who has already been convicted in the case, revoked his previous statements in which he frequently mentioned Nazaruddin as being involved in the case, including one in which he said the company was owned by the businessman. “Because I’m not sure,” El Idris said on Wednesday.

The statements fingered Nazaruddin as the mastermind of the case. Nazaruddin is charged with bribery and also for his role as a middleman.

“Nazaruddin’s name came up because I often heard it from Rosa,” El Idris said, referring to Mindo Rosalina “Rosa” Manulang, another convict in the case, who was Nazaruddin’s confidante.

El Idris added that it was only speculation on his part to say that Nazaruddin played a key role in the company. “I only knew that Nazaruddin was a front man,” he added.

Yet, El Idris, who claimed he met the defendant for the first time in 2008, said he acknowledged him as “a mediator who could connect him with government projects”.

According to El Idris, both Nazaruddin and Rosa often helped him to secure those projects. “Between 2008 and 2009, just before he [Nazaruddin] sat in the House, he and Rosa helped me to win several projects.”

However, he added in a hesitant voice that it was only Rosa who helped him after Nazaruddin became a lawmaker.

Revising his earlier statement, El Idris also said he didn’t know whether the project fee of Rp 4.3 billion, in the form of checks, to allow Nazaruddin’s company to win the bid, was paid to Nazaruddin or not.

El Idris did confirm, however, that he had channelled it to Yulianis and Oktarina Furi, who are alleged to have been Nazaruddin’s subordinates.

In another trial, that of defendant Timas Ginting, a Manpower and Transmigration Ministry official who is charged with bribing Nazaruddin and his wife Neneng to secure a solar power equipment procurement project, Nazaruddin insisted that his wife had no connection with the case.

“My wife only accepted checks worth around Rp 2 billion from a company that had once borrowed money,” Nazaruddin said.

He also testified that it was Anas who played a greater role in his company PT Anugrah Nusantara, which was used as a proxy to win the bid and then later subcontracted it to PT Alfindo Nuratama Perkasa, which was also controlled by Nazaruddin.