B

ekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad is facing a 20 years in prison for alleged involvement in four bribery and corruption cases in the disbursement of the 2008-2010 city budgets that cost the state Rp 5.2 billion (US$603,200).

This was disclosed in the first hearing in Mochtar’s trial at the Bandung Corruption Court on Tuesday, presided over by judge Azhariyadi Pria Kusuma.

According to the charges, the defendant allegedly committed corruption by collecting expenses for meals, grants and religious activities from various offices to pay his private debts, amounting to Rp 639 million, to Bank Jabar Banten. The defendant also allegedly bribed various parties.

Ketut Sumadena, one of the prosecutors, said such activities took place between March 2009 and December 2009 through the help of Mochtar’s subordinates.

According to Sumadena, to account for Mochtar’s actions, his subordinates were forced to compile fictitious reports of meetings between Mochtar and noted figures in 15 districts, a violation of Article 28 of the Law on regional administration.

The trial’s first hearing was attended by 50 ulemas from Bekasi who claimed to be supporters of Mochtar.

The defendant had been detained by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) since Dec. 13, 2009, and was moved to Kebunwaru penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, two weeks ago.

In the bribery case, Mochtar was accused of conspiring with regional secretary Tjandra Utama Effendi, who was sentenced in June 2010, to pay a Rp 4.25 billion bribe to Lilik Haryoso, the head of the budget agency at Bekasi Legislative Council in 2010.

The bribe was intended to speed up the council’s approval of the city budget, prosecutors told the court.

Combined with two other bribery cases, prosecutors tried to handle the defendant with multi-layered charges under existing laws on corruption.

Mochtar’s lawyer, Darius Dolok Saribu, said the plan to send the defendant to prison was politically charged, as Mochtar was from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PID-P), an opposition party.

“We will propose an exception and ask that the trial be stopped because the KPK is entitled to try only defendant with more than Rp 1 billion in losses,” he said.