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Court kicks off Dahlan's graft trial
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Suspected: Former state-owned enterprises (BUMN) minister Dahlan Iskan leaves the East Java Prosecutor’s Office in Surabaya on Oct. 27. He was named a suspect for his alleged involvement in selling assets of PT Panca Wira Usaha (PWU) when he was the company’s director. (Antara/Umarul Faruq)
T
he Surabaya Corruption Court in East Java kicked off on Tuesday the trial of former state-owned enterprises minister and media mogul Dahlan Iskan, who has been implicated in a graft case centering on the sale of a company owned by the East Java provincial administration.
The court initially scheduled the Tuesday hearing as the reading of indictment against Dahlan but decided to postpone it as the defendant appeared alone before the judges without a legal defense team.
“The reading of the indictment has been postponed until next week,” presiding judge Tahsin said as quoted by kompas.com.
When asked by reporters, Dahlan refused to comment on the absence of his legal defense team.
(Read also: Dahlan claims politics behind his arrest)
The East Java Prosecutor’s Office charged Dahlan under articles 2 and 3 of the 2001 Corruption Law, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison. Dahlan, who was once a presidential hopeful at the Democratic Party presidential convention in 2013, was arrested late last month immediately after investigators declared him a suspect in the case.
Dahlan was named a suspect in his capacity as former director of the province-owned company PT Panca Wira Usaha (PWU) that he led from 2000 to 2010. Investigators found irregularities in the sales of 33 assets belonging to PWU during his tenure as director.
Dahlan has claimed his arrest was politically motivated, especially after president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s regime ended in October 2014. Dahlan was a close aide to Yudhoyono, the chairman of the Democratic Party who had appointed Dahlan as the director general of state-owned electricity company PLN from 2009 to 2011. (hwa)
