In an unprecedented move on Tuesday, prosecutors have combined two charges against former lawmaker Wa Ode Nurhayati and sought a sentence of 14 years imprisonment for bribery and money laundering
n an unprecedented move on Tuesday, prosecutors have combined two charges against former lawmaker Wa Ode Nurhayati and sought a sentence of 14 years imprisonment for bribery and money laundering.
Nurhayati, a former member of the House of Representatives’ (DPR) budgetary committee, is accused of accepting Rp 6.25 billion (US$650,000) in bribes from three businessmen to secure Regional Infrastructure Adjustment Funds (DPID).
“We demand the Jakarta Corruption Court judges to declare defendant Wa Ode Nurhayati guilty,” prosecutor Guntur Fery said as he read out the sentence demand during a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday.
During the trial, prosecutors stated that Nurhayati had been proven accepting bribes from three businessmen namely, Fadh El Fouz, Saul Paulus David Nelwan and Abram Noach Mambu, through her personal assistant, Sefa Yolanda, between Oct. 13 and Nov. 1, 2010.
“We conclude that the defendant [Wa Ode] has accepted the bribe money. Though she did not directly receive the money, it was transferred from her assistant’s bank account into hers,” prosecutor Jaya Sitompul said.
According to prosecutors, Nurhayati, a former National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker, was also guilty of money laundering.
Jaya said Nurhayati opened a bank account at Bank Mandiri and deposited up to Rp 1.6 billion between Oct. 9, 2009 and September 2011.
He said within a short period between Oct. 8 and Sept. 30, 2010, the account’s balance suddenly swelled to Rp 50.5 billion, a surge that was not reasonable given the defendant’s profile as a lawmaker.
He said further that Nurhayati had transferred the money to several parties.
“Those transfers, diversions and disbursements that allegedly come from illicit practices are the elements that prove the defendant’s crime.”
Initially, Nurhayati was known as a whistle-blower who disclosed alleged illicit practices surrounding the deliberations of the state budget until the KPK named her a suspect.
Nurhayati’s lawyer, Wa Ode Nur Zaenab, told presiding judge Suhartoyo that she would deliver her defense plea during the next hearing, which is slated for Tuesday next week.
Separately, Yenti Garnasih, a Trisakti University legal expert who specializes in money laundering, told The Jakarta Post that the money laundering charges had been combined with the corruption charges.
“However, the punishment should not be cumulative but we should choose the heaviest sentence, and add one-third of that on top,” she said in a phone interview.
She hailed the KPK’s ground-breaking move to use the money laundering law and the anti-corruption law in tandem for the first time in Nurhayati’s case.
She then urged the antigraft commission to use the same technique with other graft suspects.
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