T

he Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday sentenced former tax officer Gayus H Tambunan to six years in prison, raising his total prison sentence to 28 years.

The court found Gayus guilty on four counts — accepting bribes, failing to report gratuities, committing money laundering and bribing police officers to escape detention.

The court also ordered him to pay Rp 1 billion (US$110,000) in fines or he must serve a further four months in jail.

Although the total sentence amounts to 28 years, he will probably serve a maximum of 20 years in prison, according to the Criminal Code.

Hasril Hertanto, a criminal-law expert from the University of Indonesia, said the maximum prison sentence for a person committing several crimes is 20 years. “We do not recognize sentence accumulation,” he told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

Jamil Mubarok from the Indonesia Transparency Society (MTI), expressed disappointment, saying that the latest sentence was “too lenient for someone who has repeated his crimes”. Should those sentences be accumulated, he added, it would still not be enough.

The six-year sentence is lighter that the eight years demanded by prosecutors in February.

“We found the defendant to be guilty of several counts of repeatedly committing combined acts of corruption and money laundering,” presiding judge Suhartoyo said.

Gayus was found guilty of accepting Rp 925 million in bribes from tax consultant Robertus Santonius to influence Gayus’ assessment of a tax objection filed by PT Metropolitan Retailmart.

The judges said Robertus’ money was an example of a fee paid for helping people with tax objections. “We are of the opinion that Robertus’ money was a fee,” judge Sudjatmiko said. “As an officer dealing with tax objections, he [Gayus] handled 149 cases and he accepted money [for the service].”

However, the court said it could not prove bribery in them all.

Gayus was also guilty of failing to report gratuities that he accepted in handling cases involving the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). “Instead, he kept them in bank accounts and safe-deposit boxes,” judge Pangeran Napitupulu said.

“Any gift given to a state official as a gratuity is perceived as a bribe if it is related to his position and goes against his duty,” he added.

Gayus, who only earned a monthly salary of Rp 9.2 million, possessed wealth of dubious origin.

The judges said Gayus was guilty of violating the Money Laundering Law, saying he gradually secreted a fortune with several financial-service providers to avoid arousing the suspicions of law-enforcement agencies.

Gayus opened several bank accounts and rented safe-deposit boxes under his own name, using different identities and in his wife Milana Anggraeni’s name. The police found 31 100-gram gold bars in one deposit box, which was registered to his wife.

Judge Sudjatmiko said the defense lawyers had failed to prove that Gayus’ wealth was legally obtained. “Saying the money was a wedding gift from in-laws, wedding donations from friends or money entrusted by friends, is illogical and absurd,” he said.

The court examined dozens of witnesses, including Gayus’ father Amir Syarifudin Tambunan, as a defense witness. Amir told the court the wealth mostly came from money entrusted to Gayus by a family friend.

Hotma Sitompul, Gayus’ lawyer, told the court his team would like to take a week to discuss before deciding whether or not to appeal.