O

nce a popular politician and presidential hopeful, Dahlan Iskan is now a corruption convict.

On Friday, the former state-owned enterprises minister was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay Rp 100 million (US$7,500) in fines.

“The fines can be substituted for an additional two months’ imprisonment,” presiding judge Tahsin said at the Surabaya Corruption Court in East Java.

The panel of judges found Dahlan guilty for his role in the corruption surrounding the selling of 33 assets that belonged to East Java province-owned company PT Panca Wira Usaha (PWU).

The judges also ordered Dahlan to pay Rp 8.3 billion in restitution to the state or serve an additional three years and six months in jail.

In handing down the verdict, the judges said that Dahlan had abused his authority as director of the company. Tahsin said Dahlan violated Article 3 of the Corruption Law. But the judges found the former president director of state electricity firm PT PLN not guilty of illicitly enriching himself from the case.

“I’d like to file an appeal, your honor,” Dahlan said after the reading of the verdict.

“I’d also like to thank the judges because they have decided that I did not take the state money. However, I am morally responsible as the director at that time and I will not run away from my responsibility,” he added.

The sentence was much lower than the six years demanded by prosecutors from the East Java Prosecutors’ Office. They had indicted Dahlan for selling assets of PWU in Tulungagung regency and Kediri regency for prices below the taxable value of property (NJOP), causing the company to suffer more than Rp 11 billion in losses.

Unlike Dahlan, however, the prosecutors said they would review the verdict first before deciding on whether to file an appeal.

Earlier on Friday, judges at the same court sentenced former Surabaya City Council speaker Wisnu Wardhana to three years in prison and Rp 200 million in fines for his role in the same case.

Wisnu, who was PWU’s head of assets division, was also ordered to pay Rp 1.5 billion in restitution to the state, which can be substituted for an additional one year in jail.

Wisnu has also filed an appeal.

Dahlan is also being investigated in two other corruption cases.

Investigators at the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) named Dahlan a suspect on Jan. 26 in a corruption case revolving around the procurement of 16 electric cars used as passenger shuttles during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali in 2013.

The second case was related to the construction of PLN’s main relay stations for Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara during his term as the company’s president director from 2009 to 2011.

Dahlan has repeatedly claimed that he is being targeted by “those in power,” stating that the cases are politically motivated.

Dahlan is also the former CEO of one of Indonesia’s largest newspaper publishers the Jawa Pos Group.

His unique and outspoken style helped him become a popular and rising-star politician during the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Dahlan was named the most popular presidential candidate in Yudhoyono’s presidential convention in 2014, which was participated in by 11 hopefuls.

But the party failed to nominate Dahlan for the 2014 presidential election.