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emocratic Party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh first claimed the spotlight from winning the 2001 Puteri Indonesia beauty pageant, now she is in the limelight for a totally different reason, being named a suspect for accepting bribes in the high-profile bribery case centering on the construction project of the 2011 SEA Games’ athletes’ village.

Born in Australia on Dec. 28, 1977, Angelina Patricia Pingkan Sondakh, grew up in Manado, North Sulawesi, until she went to junior high school before leaving again for Australia to attend senior high. She returned to Manado to finish her high school education and left for Jakarta to study at Atma Jaya University, graduating in 1999.

When Angie, as she is fondly called, won the Puteri Indonesia beauty pageant, she launched a career in the modeling and entertainment industry.

She was recruited to join the Democratic Party in 2004 and was soon elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the Central Java VI electoral district.

She won reelection in 2009.

Angie started a relationship with former actor Adjie Massaid while they were both building their political careers in the Democratic Party.

Angie married Adjie, then a divorced man with two children, on Sep. 28, 2008, in an Islamic ceremony. The couple registered their civil marriage on April 29, 2009, when Angie was four-months pregnant with her first child, Keanu Jabbar Massaid.

Angie was widowed, however, after Adjie died of sudden heart attack in February last year. While grieving, Angie wrote a novel for Adjie entitled Langkah Tegap Adjie Massaid (Adjie’s Firm Steps) in March.

In May 2011, her name began to surface as a possible suspect in a graft case revolving around the high-profile SEA Games’ bribery case, which has implicated several lawmakers.

Angie’s name first came to light when alleged go-between Mindo Rosalina “Rosa” Manulang told Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators that Angie had played an important role in rigging the tender for the project.

Angie, who is also a member of the House’s Commission X overseeing sports, was alleged to have helped both Rosa and her former colleague in the Democratic Party, former treasurer M. Nazaruddin, seal the deal to award the project to PT Duta Graha Indah (DGI).

In December last year, when Angie was a witness in the case, she was involved in a romance with KPK investigator Raden Brotoseno, since which time photos of the two of them together have been circulating on the Internet.