The court’s presiding judge Djaniko Girsang said Gatot was found guilty of having violated Article 2 (1) of Law No.31/1999 on the eradication of corruption, as charged by prosecutors.

The sentence imposed by the judges was two years less than that sought by prosecutors. The panel also rejected the prosecutors’ demand for the governor to reimburse state losses of Rp 2.8 billion. The panel said the burden of the losses should not be inflicted on the defendant because the misappropriated funds went to other people and organizations.

Djaniko said 17 institutions had received social assistance funding and grants from the North Sumatra budget (APBD) for the period of 2012-2013. Based on facts revealed during his trial, the judge said, the distribution of the funds to all of those institutions was based on proposals by the defendant, who served as the North Sumatra governor at that time.

Djaniko said the governor conveyed his proposals to several North Sumatra administration officials in a meeting at his official residence in November 2012. The administration had rejected the distribution of the funds to the institutions in the 2011 APBD but because of the governor’s request, they were listed as beneficiaries in the 2012-2013 APBD.

“It had never been examined whether or not those institutions were eligible as beneficiaries of the funds,” said Djaniko during the trial on Thursday. (ebf)

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