Angelina '€œAngie'€ Sondakh: (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

Former member of the House of Representatives from the ruling party, Angelina '€œAngie'€ Sondakh, has paid dearly for her decision to protect fellow party members by committing perjury during her corruption trial. Her fate was probably worsened by the strong inclination of the Supreme Court to restore its image, which has been tarnished by bribery scandals involving its justices and officials.

The graft convict now has to serve a much longer prison term after the Supreme Court increased her sentence to 12 years in prison, far higher than the four-and-a-half-years handed down by the lower court.

The Supreme Court also ordered the former beauty queen to return her ill-gotten Rp 12.58 billion (US$1.07 million) and $2.35 million to the state or serve an additional five years in prison. The lower court previously fined her only Rp 250 million. The Jakarta High Court upheld her sentence and retained the amount of the fine. She had not been ordered to pay restitution.

The cessation panel ruled on Wednesday in favor of the Corruption Eradication Commission'€™s (KPK) charges and found her guilty of active involvement in graft.

Wednesday'€™s ruling also ended Angelina'€™s drama during her case investigation and trials.

When the Jakarta Corruption Court judges handed down their verdict in January, the widow of Adjie Massaid, also a legislator from the same party, burst into tears. But she also looked relieved that the sentence was far more lenient than the 12-year jail term sought by prosecutors.

Angelina'€™s emotional closing statement during a previous hearing apparently worked as the judges saw her achievements, namely singing, speech-writing and her childhood science studies, as well as her beauty pageant titles of Miss North Sulawesi and Miss Indonesia, as mitigating factors. She also begged the court not to seize her house, saying that it belonged to her '€œfatherless children'€.

She created drama in the courtroom by introducing the judges to her two stepdaughters '€” a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old '€” who were sitting near her in the visitors'€™ section.

Angelina was also caught being evasive a number of times during her trial by answering questions with, '€œI know nothing, Your Honor'€, '€œI forget, Your Honor'€. She was also caught lying about being in possession of communication gadgets she used to communicate with other suspected actors in the case after a photojournalist presented a picture of her holding a BlackBerry cell phone. She was perceived to have attempted to cover up the wrongdoings of fellow party members.

The KPK praised the Supreme Court'€™s ruling, which it said gave hope to the anti-corruption campaign.

'€œIt gives a clear message to the public, especially to embezzlers, that corruption is a serious crime and no one should underestimate the anti-corruption campaign,'€ KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said.

Another KPK deputy chief, Busyro Muqoddas, said the ruling better reflected the public'€™s expectation for justice as '€œcorruption also harms the people who are actually its worst victims'€.

Emerson Yuntho of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) urged people to learn from what he deemed a '€œprogressive ruling that will deter embezzlers'€.

'€œWe finally saw some justice here; the cassation ruling says it all,'€ Emerson said on Thursday. '€œThe ruling satisfies the public'€™s sense of justice; we hope it sets a new benchmark for other judges in handling corruption cases.'€

Angelina'€™s lawyer, Teuku Nasrullah, refused to comment, but said he would first obtain a copy of the verdict and consult with his client before making a public statement.

'€œI don'€™t know whether it is fair and just. But generally speaking, a court should not pass a sentence in order to get kudos, in which the sentence is not in line with reality,'€ Nasrullah said.

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