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panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced former NasDem Party secretary-general Patrice Rio Capella to one year and six months in prison for accepting bribes from a governor in May.

'€œWe have found the defendant, Rio Capella, guilty of gratification as stated by the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] prosecutors'€™ indictment,'€ presiding judge Artha Theresia said as she read the final verdict at the court on Monday.

Judge Artha added that Rio was found guilty of accepting a suspicious reward while serving as a legislator at the House of Representatives.

The court also ordered Rio to pay a Rp 50 million (US$3,620) fine for his role in the corruption case.

Rio was found guilty of accepting Rp 200 million in bribes from North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho and wife Evi Susanti to serve as a middleman between the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) and the North Sumatra Prosecutor'€™s Office on behalf of Gatot to end an investigation into a graft case centering on provincial social aid funds.

The KPK named Gatot and Evi suspects in the bribery case relating to social aid funds in the province.

Rio accepted the bribe from Fransisca Insani Rahesti, an intern of prominent lawyer OC Kaligis, who was also a top official in NasDem and also named a suspect for orchestrating the bribery scheme.

Rio'€™s sentence is lighter than the two-year punishment KPK prosecutors demanded. The prosecutors also previously asked the judges to order Rio to pay Rp 50 million in fines.

According to the judge, the lighter sentence was handed down because the defendant had yet to spend the bribe and was responsible for the livelihood of his family.

The prosecutors'€™ sentence demand itself was lighter than the maximum five years'€™ imprisonment permitted by Article 11 of Law No. 30/1999 on corruption.

KPK prosecutor Yudi Kristiana previously said that Rio deserved leniency in the case because he had shown remorse during the trial and handed over his ill-gotten gains to the KPK during the investigation, as well as cooperated with investigators to solve the case by requesting to become a justice collaborator.

Justice collaborator status is only offered to suspects who are not the main perpetrators in a criminal case.

The judges, however, rejected Rio'€™s request to become a justice collaborator during Monday'€™s hearing, shutting the door to the opportunity for the KPK to reveal the identities of other '€œbig fish'€ behind the bribery scheme.

Rio'€™s lawyer, Maqdir Ismail, said that Rio accepted the judges'€™ decision and would not file an appeal against the court ruling, saying that the sentence was the best the client could get.

'€œRio wants to immediately go through the punishment, and I think that one year and six months is quite light for a corruption case,'€ Maqdir said. (foy)