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Law ministry rejects Anggodo's parole
Bowing to public outcry, the Law and Human Rights Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had officially rejected a parole request filed by graft convict Anggodo Widjoyo
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owing to public outcry, the Law and Human Rights Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had officially rejected a parole request filed by graft convict Anggodo Widjoyo.
The rejection came after the ministry's directorate general of penitentiaries revoked a five-month remission, out of the 29 months remission already received by Anggodo.
Anggodo was sentenced to prison in January 2010 after being found guilty of attempted bribery and obstruction of justice. Anggodo attempted to bribe antigraft investigators to halt the investigation into his brother, Anggoro, who was a fugitive,
'Yes, the revocation automatically made him ineligible to apply for parole,' said the ministry's director general of penitentiaries, Handoyo Sudrajat.
Handoyo said that the five-month sentence reduction for health reasons, which had been subtracted from Anggoro's 29-month remission, had been withdrawn after an internal probe carried out by the ministry found that Anggodo did not suffer any serious illness, a requirement that graft convicts should meet in order to receive such a remission.
The ministry had earlier defended its decision to grant the remission, but after public outcry it acknowledged the health argument was dubious.
The ministry also acknowledged that the 24-month sentence cut was excessive. To receive such a lengthy remission, a graft convict would have spent at least four years in prison.
Anggodo was not supposed to reach two-thirds of his prison term until 2017, but the unusual 29-month remission made him eligible to apply for parole in August.
A graft convict can only receive a maximum of one month remission in his first year behind bars; two months in the second year; three months in the third year and four months in the fourth year, but Anggodo has accumulated a total of 29 months within four years.
The revocation of the remission for health reasons only postponed Anggodo's chance to apply for parole, as he will be eligible to reapply in five months.
The KPK has repeatedly called on the ministry not to grant parole to graft convicts.
KPK spokesman Johan Budi said he hoped that the ministry would stop giving parole to graft convicts in the future, saying that the release of graft convicts was an insult to the country's antigraft efforts.
Earlier in August, after previously denying the reports, the Law and Human Rights Ministry acknowledged that it had released four graft convicts on parole despite the KPK's decision not to recommend their release.
- Law Ministry revokes five months of his 29-month remission
- The health reason he cited was dubious
- Anggoro however could apply again in another five months
The ministry released the four in August, the same month it made a controversial decision to grant parole to business tycoon Siti Hartati Murdaya.
The four graft convicts were Fahd El Fouz, a businessman sentenced to two years and six months in prison in December 2012 for bribing a lawmaker to get access to regional development funding; and Sumartono, the head of the Democratic Party faction at the Semarang City Council (DPRD II), who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in May 2012 for accepting bribes in connection with city budget allocations at the council.
The others were Agung Purno Sarjono, a National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker from Semarang, who in the same case that implicated Sumartono was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in June 2012; as well as I Nyoman Suisnaya, an official at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, who was sentenced to three years for accepting bribes related to a government project at the ministry.
