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n another blow to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday sentenced party cadre Murman Effendi to two years in jail for bribing 27 councillors in the regency of Seluma, Bengkulu.

Murman, a former chairman of the party’s Bengkulu chapter, bribed the councillors to win approval for an infrastructure project during his second tenure as the regent of Seluma.

The judges found the inactive regent guilty of paying each council member in checks worth Rp 100 million (US$11,100) and cash of between Rp 1 million to Rp 1.5 million in 2011.

The bribes were paid to ensure that councillors passed a local regulation (perda) for an infrastructure development fund, and a road and bridge construction project that was reportedly favorable to his company, PT Puguk Sakti Permai.

After the council members issued the regulation, Murman ordered the Seluma Public Works Agency to give the project tender to his company. The prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) previously found that the company, then run by four members of Murman’s family, was actually owned by Murman himself.

“The defendant was proven guilty and the panel of judges decided to send him to prison for two years,” presiding judge Marsudin Nainggolan said on Tuesday. “He is also required to pay Rp 100 million in fines or serve an additional three months in jail.”

Murman said he would have a two-week timeline to think before deciding whether or not to file an appeal.

The sentence was lighter than the five years demanded by prosecutors. KPK investigators arrested Murman in September last year.

Murman was re-elected as Seluma regent in 2010.

Just before Tuesday’s trial started, many of his loyal supporters, including children, flocked to the courtroom in the morning. They claimed to have come from Seluma to give him support.

In July 2011, the Democratic Party’s ethics council issued a recommendation to dismiss Murman from his position within the party after he was implicated in the case.

At the same time, the ethics council also dismissed As’ad Syam, a member of the party’s central executive board, and Djufri, a lawmaker who also heads the party’s West Sumatra branch.

As’ad is serving a prison sentence for his role in a corruption case linked to a power plant procurement project in Muaro Jambi during his tenure as Muaro Jambi regent in 2004. Djufri is being held for his role in a graft case linked with land procurement in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, during his term as mayor of the city in 2007.

Murman’s predecessor in the Democratic Party Bengkulu branch, Agusrin Najamuddin, is also implicated in a graft case. Murman took the position from Agusrin in a Democratic Party regional meeting that was opened by party chairman Anas Urbaningrum in January 2011.

Agusrin is now serving four-years in jail after in January of this year the Supreme Court found him guilty of embezzling dividends of Land and Building Taxes (PBB) and transferring land rights (BPHTB) worth Rp 21 million in 2006 during his tenure as Bengkulu governor.

In May last year, a panel of judges presided over by judge Syarifuddin at the Central Jakarta District
Court acquitted Agusrin of all charges, saying prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office had failed to provide enough supporting evidence.

In a shocking upturn, Syarifuddin was arrested by KPK investigators a month after his controversial ruling.

Syarifuddin is now a defendant for an alleged bribery scandal. KPK prosecutors demanded a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for him accepting Rp 250 million in bribes while handling a case.

Both Syarifuddin and Agusrin denied the public accusation that the two may have also engaged in bribery in relation to their acquittal.