TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Medan mayor gets five years, detention imminent
Rahudman Harahap: (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)The North Sumatra High Prosecutorâs Office said on Thursday it would immediately detain suspended Medan mayor, Rahudman Harahap, who was sentenced to five years and required to pay a fine of Rp 200 million (US$16,600) by the Supreme Court last week
Change Size
Rahudman Harahap: (JP/Apriadi Gunawan) (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
Rahudman Harahap: (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
The North Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday it would immediately detain suspended Medan mayor, Rahudman Harahap, who was sentenced to five years and required to pay a fine of Rp 200 million (US$16,600) by the Supreme Court last week.
The sentence issued to Rahudman was higher than that sought by prosecutors in the trial last August.
In the trial, the panel of judges at the Medan Corruption Court, led by Sugianto and panel judge members SB Hutagalung and Ahmad Jauhari, acquitted Rahudman as he was regarded as having not been proven guilty of committing the crime charged by prosecutors.
However, based on a ruling by the Supreme Court's appeals panel on March 26, Rahudman, who was tried in his capacity as former South Tapanuli regency secretary, was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt to have misappropriated Rp 1.5 billion in village administrative employees' allowances (YPAPD) in South Tapanuli regency administration in 2005.
The Supreme Court's ruling overruled the Medan Corruption Court's decision to acquit Rahudman.
North Sumatra High Prosecutor's Office legal information section head Chandra Purnama said they were content with the Supreme Court's ruling, which had granted the prosecutors' appeal. Chandra added the Supreme Court's ruling would be immediately executed.
'Yes, we will immediately implement the Supreme Court ruling. We will detain Rahudman after we receive a copy of the court's appeals ruling,' Chandra told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Chandra said his office had yet to receive a copy of the ruling, which stated Rahudman was guilty and had been sentenced to five years.
Unlike the prosecutor's office, the Medan Corruption Court stated it had received the copy of the appeals ruling from the Supreme Court regarding the graft case involving Rahudman.
Medan Corruption Court spokesman Nelson J. Marbun said they received the copy of the ruling from the Supreme Court via fax on Tuesday afternoon.
Nelson added that the official copy of the Supreme Court ruling would be sent to the Medan Corruption Court a week after the judgment.
'We will then send a copy to the prosecutor's office so it can be immediately executed,' said Nelson.
Nelson added that in the ruling, the Supreme Court had ordered the prosecutor's office to immediately detain the convict.
'The injunction does not necessarily have to wait for the defendant to take the legal means,' said Nelson in court.
In response to the Supreme Court's ruling, Rahudman's lawyer Hasrul Benny Harahap said he had taken notice of the court decision.
However, he said he could not yet take action as he had yet to receive an official copy of the ruling from the Supreme Court.
'Pak Rahudman and I have heard the ruling, but we'll consider it before taking any stance,' Hasrul told the Post on Thursday.
Asked whether his client was ready to be detained, Hasrul said his client had always been a law-abiding citizen.
'From the start, he has always been cooperative,' said Hasrul.
