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orruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors at the Jakarta Corruption Court indicted a businessman on Monday for allegedly bribing Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Adriansyah on the sidelines of the party'€™s national congress in Bali, which was attended by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and party chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The businessman, identified as Andrew Hidayat, has been accused of paying multiple bribes, including US$50,000 confiscated during the Bali event in an operation conducted by Jakarta-based police officer Brig. Agung Krisdianto. The bribes were allegedly paid to Adriansyah by Hidayat to secure a mining permit in South Kalimantan.

'€œ[The bribery] was to help ease the issuance permits for a number of companies controlled by the defendant,'€ said prosecutor Trimulyono Hendradi as he read out the indictment at the court on Monday.

Adriansyah, prior to his election as a House of Representatives lawmaker in 2014, was regent of the resource-rich Tanah Laut, South Kalimantan, between 2003 and 2013.

The dirty scheme allegedly started back in 2012 when Hidayat approached Adriansyah to ask him to issue a permit for PT Dutadharma Utama, a company operating in Tanah Laut, prosecutors said. Prosecutors added that the PDI-P politician later granted the company a permit despite the fact that the company failed to submit all necessary documents.

After the issuance of the permit, the businessman allegedly gave an initial payoff of around US$50,000 in November, after Adriansyah was sworn-in as House lawmaker, and then paid another Rp 500 million one week later.

And apparently more dirty money amounting to Rp 500 million was wired to Adriansyah in January, four months before the KPK caught the PDI-P lawmaker red-handed accepting the $50,000 cash bribe in Bali.

After Monday'€™s session, Hidayat'€™s lawyer Bambang Hartono denied all the accusations against his client, saying that all the money given to the PDI-P politician had nothing to do with the mining permit granted by Adriansyah for Hidayat'€™s companies, but merely constituted an innocent exchange '€œbetween friends'€.

Bambang said that Hidayat always helped Adriansyah by lending him money when the politician needed it. Bambang revealed that the money that the KPK confiscated in Bali was related to the PDI-P congress.

'€œThe money was about to be given to the congress committee but to no avail because [Adriansyah] was already arrested in the first place,'€ Bambang said.

Separately, PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto lambasted Bambang for his remarks, calling Bambang'€™s revelation a '€œtotal lie'€.

'€œTwo weeks before the congress we held a meeting with party members and we all agreed that we no longer needed funds from members for the congress at that time,'€ Hasto said.