he Anti-Corruption Court on Thursday sentenced Golkar Party politician Fahd El Fouz alias Fahd A Rafiq to four years in prison and ordered him to pay Rp 200 million (US$14,806) in fines for accepting bribes in connection to a 2012 government project to procure copies of the Qur’an.
The verdict was lighter than a five-year imprisonment and Rp 250 million fine prosecutors had sought.
Fahd was found guilty of accepting a Rp 14.3 billion bribe from Abdul Kadir Alaydrus, the director of PT Sinergi Pustaka Indonesia, the company that was appointed to procure Al Quran at the ministry in 2012.
Fahd colluded with former Golkar politician Zulkarnaen Djabar to influence the ministry to pick the company to carry out the project when the two were still lawmakers at House of Representatives’ Commission VIII, which oversees religious and social affairs. Zulkarnaen’s son, Dendy Prasetya Zulkarnaen, was also involved in the case. Fahd received Rp 3.4 billion from the total bribe money.
“We state Fahd El Fouz alias Fahd A Rafiq guilty of corruption,” presiding judge Hariono said on Thursday, reading from the court’s verdict as quoted by Kompas.com.
The aggravating factor was that Fahd, then a lawmaker, did not support the government’s anti-corruption program. Meanwhile, the mitigating factor was that Fahd had returned the Rp 3.4 billion to the state. (saf/ary)
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