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olkar politician Fahd El Fouz has admitted to having bribed lawmaker Wa Ode Nurhayati to win lucrative funding being discussed at the House of Representatives.

Fahd, a bribery defendant, made the confession during his trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Friday. He stated that 90 percent of the accusations leveled at him were in fact correct.

“In principle 90 percent of the indictment is true, but there are some matters that we should talk about further,” Fahd told the panel of judges presided over by judge Suhartoyo here on Friday.

Fahd, the son of renowned dangdut singer A Rafiq, is accused of bribing Nurhayati, a National Mandate Party (PAN) politician, Rp 5.5 billion (US$573,364).

The bribe was intended to secure Regional Infrastructure Adjustment Fund (DPID) disbursement for three regencies in Aceh: Pidie Jaya, Bener Meriah and Aceh Besar.

The DPID is a temporary budget project that allocates funds to several less developed regions. Although Fahd accepted the indictment, he denied that he was the one who initiated the bribery scheme.

He claimed that he was offered a role in the wrongdoing by another businessman, Haris Andi Surahman, who is also a defendant.

Fahd, 29, said it was Haris who had introduced him to Nurhayati, a service for which Haris received a fee from Fahd.

According to the indictment, Fahd learned about the DPID funds on Sept. 10, 2010. He then had a meeting with Haris at Golkar Party headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta, in order to identify the lawmakers in the House who were in charge of the DPID disbursement.

After the meeting, Haris contacted Nurhayati’s staffer Syarif Achmad who facilitated a meeting with Nurhayati.

Several days later, the meeting took place at the Pulau Dua Restaurant right next to the House complex in Senayan, South Jakarta.

The indictment also mentioned that Nurhayati agreed to Fahd’s proposal to secure the DPID disbursement for the three regencies whereupon the regencies received funding of Rp 40 billion each from the 2011 DPID budget.

For his conduct, prosecutors charged Fahd with violating Articles 5 and 13 of the Anti-corruption Law, with a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.

Fahd’s lawyer, Syamsul Huda, said he and his client would not file a defense plea over the indictment and, instead, they would proceed further with the trial.

The next hearing is slated for Oct. 16. During previous trial sessions, Fahd has testified that there were other House budgetary committee members who were involved in the graft case.

They were named as Tamsil Linrung of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Mirwan Amir of the Democratic Party, who played a role in disbursing the funds to different regencies.

However, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has yet to name other lawmakers as suspects.

Meanwhile, during Nurhayati’s trial last week, prosecutors combined two charges against the politician who has been suspended from her position as a lawmaker.

The prosecutors sought a sentence of 14 years imprisonment for bribery and money laundering.

Nurhayati, a former member of the House’s budgetary committee, is accused of accepting Rp 6.25 billion in bribes from three businessmen to secure DPID funds.

During her trial, prosecutors stated that she had accepted bribes from the 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.

Initially, Nurhayati was regarded as a whistle-blower who disclosed alleged illicit practices surrounding the deliberations of the state budget until the KPK named her a suspect.

She has accused several fellow lawmakers of involvement in the illicit DPID deliberations.