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Governor implicated in new graft case
Gatot Pujo Nugroho - JP/DONThe Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) confirmed on Tuesday that it had launched a fresh probe into North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho after finding strong evidence that he was responsible for bribing local councilors in a budget deal in 2014
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Gatot Pujo Nugroho - JP/DON
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) confirmed on Tuesday that it had launched a fresh probe into North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho after finding strong evidence that he was responsible for bribing local councilors in a budget deal in 2014.
Tuesday's announcement marks the third separate investigation the antigraft body has opened into the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician since his arrest in July for allegedly masterminding a scheme to bribe three judges in Medan in exchange for a favorable ruling.
Days after Gatot was detained in early August, the KPK obtained evidence that the North Sumatra administration had distributed billions of rupiah in cash to local councilors so that they would halt an inquiry into several problematic policies introduced by Gatot.
Meanwhile, in the latest probe, it is alleged that Gatot ordered the payment of bribes to local councillors so that they would approve a budget proposal made by his administration in 2014.
The KPK said Gatot remained a witness in the new bribery case. Acting KPK deputy chairman Johan Budi said on Tuesday that KPK leaders would soon convene investigators in a joint forum to determine who would be named suspects in the two new probes.
Johan further said that in addition to Gatot, KPK investigators had also grilled scores of former and current North Sumatra councillors in the new probes.
He said the joint forum was to test the validity of evidence in the two cases. 'We are planning to hold the forum this week. It will discuss the probes into the DPRD inquiry in 2015 and the local budget approval in 2014,' Johan told reporters at KPK headquarters on Tuesday.
If evidence was found to be valid during the forum, Johan said the KPK would soon name suspects in the case.
The KPK is currently completing Gatot's dossiers in the judge bribery case and he is slated to attend trial in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Gatot is also under the scrutiny of the Attorney General's Office (AGO) after it decided to launch an investigation into alleged misuse of social aid funds at the North Sumatra administration just days after the KPK incarcerated Gatot in the judge bribery case.
Attorney General HM Prasetyo, however, denied that the AGO had named Gatot a suspect in the social aid fund case, saying prosecutors were only at the stage of questioning witnesses in the case.
'We have questioned around 60 witnesses in the case and we will move to name the suspects as soon as we have confirmed evidence that we have collected,' Prasetyo said recently.
In August, AGO investigators visited the KPK headquarters to question Gatot in the social aid funds case.
The AGO reopened the social aid case just weeks after Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN) annulled a summons sent by the North Sumatra prosecutors' office for Gatot to face questioning in the social aid case, allegedly as a result of bribes Gatot paid to three PTUN judges, which led to his arrest in July.
The KPK also arrested Gatot's lawyer OC Kaligis, who is a senior Nasdem party politician, after he had allegedly helped Gatot devise the bribery scheme.
The KPK arrested PTUN Medan head Tripeni Irianto Putra as well as PTUN judges Amir Fauzi and Dermawan Ginting at the PTUN office as they allegedly accepted money from Kaligis' aide Gerry Baskara in July.
