T

he Jakarta Corruption Court found on Wednesday former Udayana University official Made Meregawa guilty of corruption in a graft case centering on the procurement of medical facilities worth Rp.18 billion for an academic hospital owned by Bali'€™s largest university in 2009.

A panel of judges at the court sentenced Meregawa to four years behind bars over his decision to directly appoint PT Mahkota Negara, a company owned by graft convict and former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, in the project.

Meregawa is the university'€™s former administrative and financial division head.

The court also ordered him to pay Rp 100 million (US$7,160) in fines for his offenses in the case, which caused Rp 5.7 billion in state losses.

'€œIf he cannot afford to pay the fine then he will have to serve an additional two months behind bars,'€ presiding judge Singung Hermawan said while reading out the verdict on Wednesday.

The court met the prison sentence demand of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors, while also ordering the convict to return Rp 10 million in restitution. The KPK, however, has been ordered to return the Rp 5.7 billion it seized from Meregawa during its investigation.

The restitution obligation is lower than the Rp 1 billion sought by KPK prosecutors.

The court found Meregawa guilty of enriching himself, other people and corporations in the case, as stated under Article 3 of Law No. 31/1999 on corruption.

The article carries a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars for a state official found guilty of enriching himself, other people and corporations while in office.

While maintaining that he was a victim in the case, Meregawa said that he accepted the verdict and would not challenge it at a higher court.

The antigraft body, however, said that it may challenge the verdict at the Jakarta High Court to annul the court order to return the Rp 5.7 billion to Meregawa.

 '€œI see the sentence as something that I have to face in life. This is not the only case that I have been implicated in,'€ the former university official said.

Meregawa begged KPK prosecutors not to challenge the verdict because he was also being investigated by the antigraft body in another graft case.

After hearing Meregawa'€™s request, KPK prosecutors said they would take the seven days given by the court to decide whether they would move to challenge the verdict. In addition to the health facilities graft case, the KPK has also named Nazaruddin'€™s confidant, Marisi Matondang, a suspect. Marisi is the director of Mahkota Negara, a subsidiary of PT Permai Group, which is owned by Nazaruddin, who has yet to be named a suspect despite having been grilled several times in the case.

Meregawa has also been named a suspect by the KPK in its investigation into alleged irregularities surrounding the construction of a hospital worth billions of rupiah for Udayana University between 2009 and 2011.