Angelina refutes charges against her

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Democratic Party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh presented her plea on Thursday, demanding prosecutors drop their charges, which she claimed were unclear, incomplete and unsynchronized.

In an earlier hearing, prosecutors charged the former beauty queen with accepting Rp 34.9 billion (US$3.6 million) in kickbacks from Permai Group, a company belonging to former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin.

The bribery is alleged to have taken place in connection with procurement projects with the Education and Culture Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry in 2010.

The company supposedly paid the bribe in exchange for projects run by the Youth and Sports Ministry (the construction of athletes’ village for last year’s SEA Games in Palembang, South Sumatra) and the Education and Culture Ministry (projects in 16 state universities).