T

he Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday indicted palm-oil businessman Gulat Manurung for graft in a bribery case surrounding the issuance of a land-conversion permit by the Forestry Ministry in September, when the ministry was led by current People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Zulkifli Hasan.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors at the court charged Gulat with bribing Riau Governor Annas Mamun with US$166,100 following the issuance of a ministerial decree by Zulkifli in August allowing the Riau administration to convert a forest area of 1,638,249 hectares in total into a non-forest area.

'€œGulat gave the money to Annas for his services in handling the permit for a total of 1,188 hectares of land in Kuantan Sengingi regency and 1,214 hectares in Rokan Hilir regency, belonging to him and his other friends,'€ prosecutor Kresno Anto Wibowo said at the court.

Prosecutors said that during a visit in Riau in August, Zulkifli, in a speech at the administration office, encouraged people in Riau to make proposals to the change the status of their land so that they could become part of the 1,638,249 hectares allowed by the ministry.

Prosecutors said that following the encouragement from Zulkifli, who is a member of the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Riau administration conducted studies on which specific areas could be included in the total area allowed by the ministry.

The administration sent a revised proposal to Zulkifli, who later granted his approval. Prosecutors said that Zulkifli approved part of the areas that were proposed by Annas.

However, prosecutors further said that Annas later made another revision to the proposal that he had sent to Zulkifli by including the land of Gulat and his colleagues in the land-conversion proposal.

The change was allegedly made after a payment of US$166,100 given by the businessman.

'€œOn Sept. 22, [after making the revision] Annas phoned the defendant and asked him to provide Rp 2.9 billion [US$228,100] for his services in meeting Gulat'€™s request in the proposal submitted by the Riau administration,'€ Kresno said.

In the end, Gulat could only afford to pay Annas Rp 2 billion.

Riau saw 21,400 hectares of its land converted to oil-palm plantations from 2011 to 2012, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Annas is the third consecutive Riau governor to be implicated in a graft case. The previous two governors, Rusli Zainal and Saleh Djasit, have already been sentenced in two separate graft cases. Rusli was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the Pelalawan forestry permit and Riau National Games graft cases, while Saleh got four years for his involvement in the procurement of fire-fighting vehicles.

Separately, KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that the antigraft body was currently completing Annas'€™ dossier for the bribery case, adding that as soon as it was completed Annas would stand trial.

'€œOur investigation into AM is ongoing. We still need to question more witnesses to complete his dossier,'€ Johan said at the KPK headquarters on Monday, referring to Annas by his initials.

The antigraft body earlier grilled Zulkifli on Nov. 12 to seek clarification about his role in issuing a land-conversion permit for Gulat'€™s palm-oil plantation in Riau.

After an eight-hour questioning session, Zulkifli revealed that KPK investigators had asked him about his main responsibilities as forestry minister, as well as those of high-ranking officials at the ministry.