C

orruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors have asked the Jakarta Corruption Court to sentence former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq to 18 years in prison for graft.

The KPK'€™s team of prosecutors requested the sentence after reading from a 1,095-page dossier during a hearing at the court in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Wednesday.

KPK prosecutor Rini Triningsih said Luthfi should be found guilty of corruption for violating Article 12 of the 1999 Corruption Law, and money laundering as stipulated in Article 3 and 5 of Law No. 8/2010.

'€œSo we request the court sentence [the defendant] to 10 years'€™ imprisonment [for corruption],'€ she said. '€œWe [also] asked the court to sentence [the defendant] to eight years'€™ imprisonment [for money laundering].'€

The prosecutors also sought for the defendant to pay Rp 1.5 billion in fines or serve an additional 22 months in prison if he failed to make the payment.

The prosecutors cited several incriminating factors, including that Luthfi was once leader of the country'€™s largest Islamic party, which branded itself as a '€œclean'€ party.

The prosecutors also said he had colluded with private companies.

Mitigating factors that could save Luthfi from a heavier sentence included polite behavior throughout the trial and that he had a family depending on him.

Luthfi is accused of accepting bribes from meat importing company PT Indoguna Utama in exchange for persuading party colleague Suswono, the agriculture minister, to increase the company'€™s beef import quota.

The KPK prosecutors accused Luthfi of lobbying Suswono to raise the quota so PT Indoguna Utama could increase its share of the quota to 10,000 tons.

Luthfi devised a scheme that would facilitate a meeting between Suswono and PT Indoguna Utama president director Maria Elizabeth Liman.

'€œLuthfi also advised Maria to give data to Suswono regarding beef import demand in Indonesia,'€ another KPK prosecutor Muhibuddin said.

The former PKS boss was also charged with laundering money while he was in the House of Representatives.

He was accused of concealing the source of his potentially illicit assets.

The KPK prosecutors said that Luthfi had made efforts to hide his ill-gotten assets since he started serving as a lawmaker in 2003 by omitting his three BCA accounts in his official wealth reports (LHKPN) from 2003 and 2009.

'€œHe argued that the three accounts were just being used as a depot where money from his private businesses circulated,'€ said Muhibuddin.

The KPK prosecutors said that Luthfi initially stated in the wealth reports that he did not have any other income besides his salary as a lawmaker and as the PKS president, amounting to Rp 60 million and Rp 30 million respectively.

He later changed his statement, saying that he actually had income from his private businesses.

Muhibuddin also said the wide disparity between Luthfi'€™s wealth reports and his actual wealth was revealed during the KPK'€™s investigation into his assets.

In the 2003 report, Luthfi said that his assets were worth no more than Rp 381 million, and increased to Rp 1.06 billion in 2009.

Muhibuddin, however, revealed that Luthfi had amassed a whopping Rp 4 billion in a single bank account between 2005 and 2009.

Prosecutors also found evidence that Luthfi received Rp 17 billion and US$79,300 as well as RM10,000 ($3,080) from 2011 until 2013.

'€œIt'€™s not logical that he could have billions of rupiah in his bank accounts,'€ Muhibuddin said.

After hearing the sentence request, the panel of judges at the court adjourned until next Wednesday when Luthfi is expected to read his defense statement.