After verdict, eyes turn to minister

JP/Ricky YudhistiraThe Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday sentenced businesswoman Dharnawati to 2.5 years in prison in a bribery case that may implicate Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar.

Dharnawati, a director with PT Alam Jaya Papua, was found guilty of bribing two Manpower and Transmigration Ministry officials Rp 1.5 billion (US$168,000) in order to win a construction project in Papua.

“The defendant has been found guilty of violating the Corruption Law,” presiding judge Eka Budi Prijanta said on Monday. “Therefore, we have sentenced her to two years and six months in prison.”

The verdict was lighter than the four-year sentence sought by the prosecution.

The panel of judges has also ordered the convict to pay a Rp 100 million fine.

Dharnawati’s lawyer Djaka Sutrasna said his team was not sure whether they would appeal the verdict. “Even though the verdict is lighter than the demand, we think it is still too heavy.”

The bribery case centers on a Rp 500 billion tender for a ministry infrastructure development project spanning 19 districts all over the country.

The fraudulent project drew money from the development acceleration fund, proposed by the ministry with the consent of the Finance Minister and the House of Representatives’ Budgetary Committee.

Dharnawati, in this case, won the tender valued at a total of Rp 73 billion for four districts of Papua: Manokwari, Teluk Wondama, Mimika and Keerom.

Dharnawati has been detained by the Pondok Bambu detention center in East Jakarta, since Aug. 26, 2011. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested her in the act of handing over part of the bribe money amounting to Rp 1.5 billion to Dadong Irbarelawan and I Nyoman Suisnaya, two officials with the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

At that time, she intended to disburse another Rp 500 million for the two officials, because she had promised them Rp 2 billion in total.

The remaining money was found by KPK investigators in a cardboard box in a car parked at the ministry’s office in Kalibata, South Jakarta.

Suisnaya was the secretary of the ministry’s directorate general for transmigration development while Dadong was the ministry’s head of evaluation and reporting. Both are suspects in the same case and are on trial. The next trial hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday.

KPK prosecutors mentioned Minister Muhaimin and the ministry’s directorate general of Transmigration Area Development Jamaluddien Malik in the indictment of the suspects. The KPK, however, has yet to name Muhaimin and Jamaluddien as suspects.

Muhaimin, also chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and a key member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party-led coalition, has repeatedly declared his innocence, saying he “never gave any order to receive any bribes”.

Hasril Hertanto, executive director of the Indonesian Court Monitoring Society at the University of Indonesia, said that the law enforcers, including prosecutors and KPK investigators, should press on with the case to uncover the masterminds behind the bribery.

“All testimonies, evidence and facts revealed during the trial should be followed up. The question is whether they [law enforcers] will do so or not,” he said.

He added that if the law enforcers did not probe the masterminds then such corruption cases would likely reoccur in the future.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Ade Irawan expressed similar concern, saying that the case should not stop at the “operator” level but be followed up to the masterminds, including those from the ministry and the House’s Budgetary Committee. (rpt)