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witness at the Jakarta Corruption Court said on Monday that graft suspect Annas Maamun, the suspended Riau governor, had visited People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Zuklifli Hasan'€™s house in Jakarta prior to his arrest in September in connection to the issuance of land-conversion permits in the province.

Zulkifli, a former forestry minister, has been in the spotlight following Annas'€™ revelation that the ministry had issued a land permit for palm-oil businessman Gulat Manurung, who allegedly bribed Annas to convince officials at the ministry to approve the Riau administration'€™s proposal on land-conversion permits.

Testifying at Gulat'€™s trial on Monday, the witness, Burhanuddin, who is the head of the Riau Transportation Agency, said that Annas had visited Zulkifli'€™s house along with Riau Forestry Agency head Irwan Effendy, Riau Forestry Agency'€™s palynology division head Cecep Iskandar and Annas'€™ adjutant Triyanto at an unspecified time prior to the arrest of the 74-year-old governor.

'€œAt that time, Annas returned to the hotel [in Jakarta]. Then we went to the forestry minister'€™s house at 8 p.m.,'€ Burhanuddin said at the court on Monday.

'€œThe minister and the governor sat on the same sofa, while I sat on another sofa in the corner of the room,'€ Burhanuddin said.

He said that during the meeting Annas and Zulkifli talked about the follow up to a ministerial decree issued by Zuklifli in August.

'€œI don'€™t know what happened after the meeting,'€ Burhanuddin said.

Burhanuddin'€™s testimony matched details exposed by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors when indicting Gulat for graft last week at the court.

KPK prosecutors charged Gulat with paying Annas US$166,100 following the issuance of a ministerial decree by Zulkifli in August that enabled the Riau administration to convert a forested area measuring 1,638,249 hectares into a non-forest area.

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

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

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

The administration sent a revised proposal to Zulkifli, who approved it. Prosecutors said Zulkifli had approved some of the areas proposed by Annas.