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Ex-communications minister gets 15 years in prison for corruption
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Former Communications and Information Minister Johnny G Plate (second right) is escorted out of the courtroom of the Jakarta Corruption Court on Oct. 25, 2023. (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)
T
he Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced former communications and information minister Johnny G. Plate to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for accepting kickbacks worth billions of rupiah from inflated procurement contracts for a government 4G telephony project.
The sentence was largely in line with the prosecution’s demands.
The panel of three judges concluded that Johnny had received at least Rp 11.5 billion (US$734,824) in kickbacks from Anang Achmad Latif, who headed the ministry’s Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI), which led the project to erect thousands of 4G base transceiver stations (BTS) in underdeveloped regions.
Johnny had also demanded more kickbacks that he used to enrich other defendants in the case, mostly vendors in the project, the court found.
The judges concluded that Johnny had colluded with other defendants, including Anang, to devise the scheme. Johnny himself was found to have approved a scale-up of the project without supporting data or business plans.
The judges ordered him to pay Rp 15.5 billion in restitution or serve an additional two years in prison. This was lower than the Rp 17.8 billion demanded by the prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
Read also: Prosecutors seek 15 years for ex-communications minister
