T

he Supreme Court on Wednesday approved a case review petition filed by graft convict Angelina Sondakh and cut her prison term from 12 to 10 years.

The verdict annulled a cassation ruling issued by the Supreme Court in November 2013 that increased Angelina'€™s prison term in the bribery case to 12 years, from four-and-a-half years issued by the Jakarta High Court.

A case review mechanism is the last legal attempt to challenge a cassation ruling in criminal cases. The final decision is legal and binding.

After the case review, convicts can only apply for non-judicial means such as filing a clemency proposal with the President.

Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi confirmed the new ruling, adding that the court only ordered Angelina to pay damages of Rp 2 billion (US$144,980) and $1.2 million instead of the Rp 12.5 billion and $2.38 billion earlier ordered by a panel of judges at the cassation level.

If Angelina fails to make the payment, she will have to serve another year in prison.

'€œShe also has to pay Rp 500,000 in fines or she will receive an additional six months in jail in the case,'€ Suhadi said on Wednesday.

He did not give details on the legal considerations that the judging panel used in the case review to reach their decision.

Newly inaugurated Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Agus Rahardjo and his deputies Alexander Marwata, Basaria Panjaitan, Laode Muhammad Syarif and Saut Situmorang declined to comment on the new verdict.

KPK spokesperson Yuyuk Andriati also did not return a call from The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The KPK charged Angelina with accepting bribes of Rp 12.58 billion and $2.35 million in relation to a state project launched by the Youth and Sports Ministry, which at that time was led by former Democratic Party politician Andi Mallarangeng.

The graft probe led to a crackdown on other powerful elites from the Dems, including then chairman Anas Urbaningrum and treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin as well as Andi himself in 2012.

The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Angelina to four-and-a-half years in prison in January 2013, which was lighter than the 12 years sought by KPK prosecutors.

In June of the same year, the Jakarta High Court through an appeal ruling confirmed the four-anda-half-year sentence. Meanwhile, in November 2013, the Supreme Court, at the cassation level, approved KPK prosecutors'€™ request to sentence Angelina to 12 years in prison.

Angelina'€™s lawyer Rudy Alfonso slammed the Supreme Court'€™s decision, saying the highest court should have freed his client instead of just granting a sentence reduction.

'€œThe verdict is unjust because she is obliged to pay heavy restitution. Angie did not receive such an amount of bribes in the case.

'€œThe sentence is also not fair considering that Nazaruddin, who is the main actor in the case, only received seven years in the case,'€ Rudy told the Post on Wednesday.