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Twelve years sought for Angelina in graft trial

Prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have called on the Jakarta Corruption Court to sentence Democratic Party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh to 12 years in prison, demanding that she return the billions of rupiah paid to her as kickbacks to the state

Rabby Pramudatama (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, December 21, 2012 Published on Dec. 21, 2012 Published on 2012-12-21T11:04:58+07:00

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Twelve years sought for Angelina in graft trial

P

rosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have called on the Jakarta Corruption Court to sentence Democratic Party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh to 12 years in prison, demanding that she return the billions of rupiah paid to her as kickbacks to the state.

“She is charged with abusing her authority [as a member of the House of Representatives’ budget committee and Commission X on sports] as stipulated in Article 12 of the Corruption Law,” said prosecutor Kresno Anto Wibowo, reading out the sentence demand at the Jakarta Corruption Court.

The case for the prosecution maintains Angelina accepted more than Rp 34.90 billion (US$3.6 million) in kickbacks from the Permai Group, a holding company belonging to former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, which won the tender to build the Jakabaring athletes’ village in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Prosecutors said that Angelina should be handed a severe penalty because she had not admitted her guilt and had shown no remorse.

The prosecutors concluded that Angelina had violated articles 12 and 18 of the Corruption Law for accepting kickbacks from a private company in exchange for securing lucrative budget allocations from two ministries in 2010.

The Permai Group is an umbrella company that runs dozens of smaller companies, most of which were involved in graft.

The Permai Group was previously managed by Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum along with Nazaruddin, who is himself now a graft convict.

According to Angelina’s case file, Nazaruddin introduced Angelina, who was coordinator of the House budget committee, to Permai’s marketing director, Mindo “Rosa” Rosalina Manullang to discuss the projects.

The projects in question were the construction of the athletes’ village for last year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Palembang, which was overseen by the Youth and Sports Ministry, and the procurement of laboratory equipment for 16 state universities overseen by the Education and Culture Ministry.

Angelina asked Rosa to pay her 5 percent of the projects’ combined total value if they were secured by the Permai Group.

As everything went according to plan, Angelina accepted a total of Rp 34.90 billion from the Permai Group, comprising Rp 12.58 billion and $2.35 million, paid in 11 installments.

Prosecutors also found evidence that Angelina had allegedly amassed ill-gotten wealth, which the KPK may confiscate at the conclusion of the trial.

“In 2010, Angelina had Rp 2.5 billion in her bank account. However, based on her salary she could only have saved a maximum Rp 792 million,” prosecutor Kresno said.

Angelina appeared in a state of shock after hearing the sentence demand. She held back her tears while seated on the defendant’s bench but burst into tears when she saw her father, Lucky Sondakh, outside the courtroom.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said the order to confiscate Angelina’s wealth, based on Article 18 of the Corruption Law, could be a deterrent to others tempted to commit graft.

Angelina was named a suspect in March this year, and her first hearing took place in September.

The KPK’s investigation implicated several people, including Nazaruddin, Rosa, former Youth and Sports Ministry secretary Wafid Muharam and businessman El Idris.

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