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Governor's wife admits handing bribe money to OC Kaligis
Disgraced: Non-active North Sumatra governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho (center) and his second wife Evi Susanti (behind with black headscarf) arrive for questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over an alleged bribery involving judges and a clerk of the Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN)
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Disgraced: Non-active North Sumatra governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho (center) and his second wife Evi Susanti (behind with black headscarf) arrive for questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over an alleged bribery involving judges and a clerk of the Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN). (tempo.co) (center) and his second wife Evi Susanti (behind with black headscarf) arrive for questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over an alleged bribery involving judges and a clerk of the Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN). (tempo.co)
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span class="inline inline-center">Disgraced: Non-active North Sumatra governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho (center) and his second wife Evi Susanti (behind with black headscarf) arrive for questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over an alleged bribery involving judges and a clerk of the Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN). (tempo.co)
Non-active North Sumatra governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho's second wife, Evi Susanti, a suspect in a bribery case involving Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN) judges and a clerk, has admitted to giving senior lawyer Otto Cornelis (OC) Kaligis money for bribing judges.
During a trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor) on Thursday, Gatot confirmed his wife's statement, made in response to questions raised by presiding judge Syaiful Arif and fellow judge Alexander Marwata about the flow of money in the bribery case.
'It's correct. All of the money provided for Pak OC Kaligis was given through my wife, Evi Susanti,' said Gatot.
Evi said in the trial that Kaligis had often asked her to hand him money because of the pair's regular communication, and his less regular communication with her husband, the governor.
The case began with the alleged misappropriation of Lower Regional Assistance (BDB) and Social Assistance (Bansos) funds in 2012, 2013 and 2014, which allegedly involved a number of North Sumatra provincial administration officials. The North Sumatra administration then filed a pretrial petition against the corruption investigation, currently being conducted by the Attorney General's Office (AGO), at the Medan court.
The corruption case was being handled by the North Sumatra Prosecutor's Office (Kejati) before the AGO took over the case.
In the midst of the administration's pretrial hearing against the AGO, the KPK discovered an alleged bribery by one of Kaligis' employees, Moch Yagari Bhastara Guntur, aka Gerry, who reportedly paid off three PTUN Medan judges, namely Tripeni Irianto Putro, Amir Fauzi and Dermawan Ginting, and also the court's clerk, Syamsir Yusfan. The KPK suspects that Kaligis was involved in the bribery.
Evi said she and her husband did not agree with the way Kaligis had chosen to solve the case via the PTUN, but she said she kept giving money as requested by Kaligis.
"Pak OC had reasons. I thought it was his authority as a lawyer," she said.
Evi said that it was Kaligis who had asked for more and more money, pushing her to continue the payments requested.
At the beginning of July, Evi sent US$30,000 in cash to Kaligis' office, which was picked by his security guard. According to Evi, Kaligis at that time told her the money was going to be used to solve the case via the PTUN. She further explained that it was Kaligis who had asked her to provide the bribe money in US dollars. Evi then gave a further US$2,500.
During the trial, a KPK prosecutor, Yuni, interrogated Evi about whether she had known why Kaligis had requested money. Evi insisted that Kaligis had never explained what the money for.
"As I have said, [my husband] Gatot and I had paid what Pak Kaligis requested, even though we didn't agree with this lawsuit being filed at the PTUN," Evi said. (ebf)
