T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Sunday that it was looking into the possibility of charging prominent cleric Attabik Ali with perjury after finding that the head of the Yogyakarta-based Krapyak Islamic Boarding school had allegedly given false testimony in court to defend his son-in-law, former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum.

Anas has been charged with accepting Rp 94 billion (US$7.9 million) and $5.2 million in fees from companies associated with him, most of which was used to fund his successful chairmanship campaign during the party congress in 2010.

In addition, the KPK also accused him of buying two plots of land in Yogyakarta using around $1 million of the ill-gotten money that was leftover from the congress.

During a trial hearing last week at the Jakarta Corruption Court, KPK prosecutors presented evidence suggesting that Attabik had given false testimony with regard to Anas'€™ money-laundering offences.

'€œThis is not yet final, but the KPK will make the decision [about charging Attabik with perjury] after the judges confirm their final verdict on AU that the counterevidence provided by KPK prosecutors was true,'€ KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, referring to Anas using his initials.

To allegedly defend his son-in-law, Attabik, during Anas'€™ trial on Aug. 28, said that it was him who bought the two plots of land in Yogyakarta, not Anas, using US dollar banknotes he had collected since 1989. He said he bought the land for around $1 million back in 2011.

During the trial, the court'€™s panel of judges doubted Attabik was telling the truth and urged him to show receipts from the money changer where he bought the dollars.

Attabik said he had no evidence of such transactions.

He argued that since 1989, he had instructed an individual named Sulaiman, who died in 2012, to buy dollar banknotes from money changers, but he never collected any receipts.

'€œJust tell us the truth about whether the dollar banknotes came from the defendant or not,'€ presiding judge Haswandi told Attabik during the trial.

When reading on Sept. 11 their sentence demand for Anas'€™ corruption and money-laundering offences, KPK prosecutors displayed an e-mail from the US Department of Justice confirming that the dollar banknotes used by Attabik to buy the land were printed in 2006.

'€œThe evidence contradicts his argument that he bought the two plots of land using dollar banknotes he collected since 1989. Thus, his testimony should be ignored by the judges,'€ prosecutor Yudi Kristiana said at the court.

Separately, Anas'€™ lawyer Firman Wijaya accused KPK prosecutors of playing '€œa dirty trick'€ by showing the US Department of Justice'€™s e-mail at the end of the court hearing and not when the court grilled Attabik on Aug. 28.